uV 



HISTORY AND DEFENSE 



OF 



AFRICAN SLAVERY. 



BY 



WILLIAM. B. TROTTER, 



OF QUITMAN, MISSISSIPPI. 



PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR. 

18 01. 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S60, by 

WILLIAM B. TROTTER, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Conrt of the United States for the Southern 

District of Mississijipi. 



(. 2 ^7 1 I 



\ 



^i.^ 



INTRODUCTION 



As the African slave population in the United 
States now number about four millions, and are 
greatly on the increase — a population which, in the 
capacity of slaves, are as useful to the commerce of 
the world, or more so, than any other number of 
people of any class, and in the condition of slaves 
are better satisfied than in any other ; and many 
different and erroneous opinions having been enter- 
tained, in relation to this class of people, by those 
who neither know anything practically or theoreti- 
cally about them, in consequence of which much dis- 
turbance has been caused to exist in the political 
part of the different States of the United States and 
elsewhere for the want of the proper knowledge of 
the true nature and condition of African slavery, 
and no other book has ever been written containing 
as complete a history of the African race and nature 

(iii) 



IV INTRODUCTION. 

of African slavery — I have written this book for the 
purpose of placing the subject fairly before the pub- 
lic in a condensed form, embracing as much informa- 
tion as possible in a few words. 

Having been raised in a country where African 
slavery was tolerated, and having been the owner 
and manager of many of them, my opportunities 
for understanding their nature and disposition are 
equal to any other author who has ever written on the 
subject ; and having made a careful examination into 
the histories and writings of able authors and emi- 
nent travelers, and procured the best information 
which can possibly be gleaned from the writings of 
others, I have embraced within this work informa- 
tion which will be of immense value to all classes — 
the non-slaveholder as well as the slaveholder — not 
only as to the nature and origin of African slavery, 
but the mode of treatment and management of Afri- 
can slaves, in order to make them profitable ; and I 
am also convinced that no unprejudiced, reflecting 
mind can ever read this little book through, and 
afterward be opposed to African slavery. 

WM. B. TROTTER. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 



The Origin of the Negro Race. — The Descendants of Ham, 
the youngest Son of Noah. — The Curse pronounced on 
Ham and his Posterity by Noah. — Bible Evidence of 
Slavery 9 

CHAPTER 11. 

The Utility of African Slavery, and of Slavery in the United 
States ; and Transportation. — Further Bible Evidence of 
Slavery , 25 

CHAPTER III. 

Nature of the African Race. — 1st. His Physical Qualities; 
2d. His Peculiar Color and Hair ; 3d. His Mental Quali- 
ties; 4th. His Disposition and Habits 33 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Relative Condition of the African Race. — Comparison 
between the Wild African and American Slave 57 

(V) 



vi CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER V. 

The Trobable Result as to Universal Slavery of the African 
Race.— All Civilized Nations would be benefited by hav- 
ing them as Slaves.— Their Probable Destiny.— The De- 
struction of the English Possessions in the West Indies 
by Freeing their Slaves.— Evil Result of Freeing the 
Slaves in San Domingo 67 

CHAPTER VI. 

The People of the Slave States, of all others, have a right 
to own their Slaves. — Slavery introduced by Great Britain 
and France into the United States. — Judicial Decisions 
by the Courts of Great Britain and the United States on 
the Subject of African Slavery 76 

CHAPTER TIL 
The Probable Result of African Slavery 117 

CHAPTER VIII. 

How to make African Slavery Profitable.— Treatment of 
Slaves.— Their Houses.— Their Clothing.— Their Food.... 120 

CHAPTER IX. 
How to Construct their Houses 131 

CHAPTER X. 
Mode of Clothing the Slave 136 

CHAPTER XI. 
Mode of Feeding Slaves 149 

CHAPTEU XII. 
AVomen and Children— How to Treat Them 155 



CONTENTS. Vll 



CHAPTER XIII. 



The Mode of arranging Out-houses on a Plantation — Jail, 
Ball-room, Church, Hospitals, with the Mode of Treating 
the Sick, and evil Consequence of the Use of Spirituous 
Liquors ■•• 164 

CHAPTER XIV. 
How to Treat the Women 181 

CHAPTER XV. 
A Hint to Overseers 184 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Duties of Masters and Slaveholders 191 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Free Negroes. — Their Influence and Danger among Slaves.. 199 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

The Conclusion, with Seven Maxims as Advice to Young 
Men 202 



A HISTOEY AND DEFENSE 



AFRICAN SLATERY. 



CHAPTER I. 



The Origin of the Negro Race. — The Descendants of Ilam, the 
youngest Son of Xoah, — The Curse pronounced on Ham and 
his Posterity by Noah. — Bible Evidence of Slavery. 

When we look around us, on every side, 
and examine the book of nature, we find that 
there is a great variety of everything which 
meets our view or comes in contact with our 
senses, both in the animal and the vegetable 
kingdoms ; and, although different things may 
bear in some respects a close resemblance to 
each other, in other respects they are very 
widely different, and intended for very dif- 
ferent uses. Thus, we find in the vegetable 
kingdom many kinds of oaks, many kinds of 
willows, many kinds of hickories, many kinds 
of corn, and of everything we behold many 

2 (9) 



10 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

kinds of the same species. So among ani- 
mals, from the smallest insect up to man, 
many kinds of each, in some respects alike, 
in others very widely different. Thus, we 
find that the greyhound, though very swift, 
cannot scent like the long-eared hound; nei- 
ther can the bull-dog scent like the one or 
run as the other, but he is better adapted to 
fio'ht than either. God has made them as 
they are, and each have their particular 
duties to perform, and it would be perfectly 
absurd for either to attempt to cope with the 
other in the particular occupation for which 
God has formed them; hence, when we look 
at a tree, we find that it has bark, sap, heart, 
root, trunk and branches, all difierent from 
each other, yet the wdiole combined forms 
the tree, neither able to perform the duties of 
the others, yet all in the performance of the 
duties assigned to each add to the life and 
nutriment of the whole. So with the human 
system; there is the head, the hands, the 
body, the legs and the feet, besides many 
other portions, each having a separate duty; 
none able to perform the duties of the rest, 
none able to do without the others, yet all 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 11 

combined makes the man complete. It would 
not do for all to be head, neither for all to be 
hands, legs or feet, but it is all-important that 
there should be a due proportion of each, and 
no one portion can say to any of the rest, I 
have no need of thee. 

So it is in society; there must be some to 
govern and some to be governed; there must 
be some to trade, some to navigate the seas, 
some to cultivate the soil, and some to manu- 
facture, and all combined adds to the benefit 
of themselves and each other; and thus has 
God formed all things according to his good 
pleasure and for his own glory. Some men 
he has made black, some red, and some white; 
some he has made wise, and some he has 
made for one purpose and some for another; 
and we can no more raise the negro to the 
equality of the white man than we could 
change the color of his skin, or the form of 
his hair, or the circulation of his blood. 

The next question will then arise as to the 
origin of the different races of men, as it re- 
spects the three colors — the black, the red, 
and the white man. These seem to be the 
three distinct races of men, differing materi- 



12 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

ally in coIoFj in disposition^ in intellect, and in 
habit. We read in the Book of Genesis that 
God formed Adam, the first man, ont of the 
dust of the earth, and breathed into his 
nostrils the breath of life, and that God 
brought on him a deep sleep and took a rib 
from his side, out of which he formed a 
woman and gave her to the man; that they 
were both placed in the Garden of Eden, and 
commanded that of a particular tree of the 
garden they should not eat of the fruit there- 
of; that by the temptation of the devil they 
were induced to partake of the forbidden fruit, 
and thereby fell from their state of purity 
and were driven out of the garden in conse- 
quence of their disobedience; that they soon 
began to multiply, until there were a great 
many human beings on the earth; that the 
human race became very wicked, and God 
was offended at them; that in consequence of 
which, God destroyed, by means of the flood, 
all the human race from the face of the earth 
except Noah and his family, who were saved 
by means of an ark which God had instructed 
Noah to build; that Noah had three sons, 
to wit, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, with their 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 13 

families, from whom sprang all the human 
race which has since inhabited the earth; 
and there can be little doubt but that God 
created the different colors of men in that 
noted family; that as he intended to repeople 
the earth after the flood by the family of 
Noah, and wrought a miracle in their preser- 
vation, he also wrought a miracle in the 
formation of the different colors in the three 
sons of Noah; hence, it is generally agreed 
by all authors on the subject, from the best 
authority we can obtain, that Shem was a 
red man, and that he is the same with Mel- 
chizedek — mentioned as a great high priest 
in the Bible, for he preached to the descend- 
ants of Noah for four hundred years after the 
flood, and was held in great reverence; that 
Ham was a black man, and took his name 
from his color, for the word Ham means black; 
and that Japheth was a white man. Thus, 
in this remarkable family, the family of Noah, 
from the best authority we have, commenced 
the different races of men. 

After the waters of the flood had subsided, 
Noah planted a vineyard, (see Genesis, 9th 
chapter, from the 20th to the 2Tth verse in- 

9* 



14 A niSTORY AND DEFENSE 

elusive;) and being on one occasion drunk 
by drinking too freely of the Avine, Ham, one 
of his sons, seeing him lie thus exposed naked, 
made sport of him and pointed him out to 
Shem and Japheth, his two brothers, who 
took a garment and walked backwards and 
covered their father; in consequence of which, 
Noah, when he came to himself, pronounced 
this curse on Ham, to wit, 25th verse: Cursed 
be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be 
unto his brethren. 

26th V. And he said. Blessed be the Lord 
God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his ser- 
vant. 

27th V. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he 
shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan 
shall be his servant. 

Ham, the black son of Noah, who was 
called Canaan, settled Africa, and the curse 
pronounced on him by his flither, on that 
memorable occasion, is verified by the en- 
slavery of his posterity down to the present 
day. 

The first introduction of Africans into the 
United States was not a matter of haste, but 
the subject was deliberately investigated and 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 15 

entered upon by wise men and philanthropists. 
Shortly after the settling of the colonies by 
Great Britain, in North America, a skillful 
navigator, by the name of Hudson, suggested 
to some of the nobility of England and France 
that the African race was peculiarly adapted 
to hard, rough work, such as clearing land and 
making fences, and if properly trained they 
might be made of great value in the perform- 
ance of the rough work in the colonies, and 
the trade would be a profitable one and pay 
well for the capital invested; that it would 
redound to the good of the African as well 
as the white man; that the African kings 
were in the habit of killing promiscuously all 
of their prisoners, and sometimes would eat 
them for food, and that if they could procure 
the value of a hog of the same weight, they 
would gladly make the exchange, and thereby 
the life of man, a poor unfortunate prisoner, 
v/ould be saved and be taken to a Christian 
land, where he would hear the gospel preached 
and have an opportunity of becoming a Chris- 
tian. This seemed very feasible to the no- 
bility, but they were unwilling to embark in 
the speculation unless they could becom.e 



16 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

thoroughly convinced that it was morally 
right for them to engage in such a specula- 
tion. 

Consequently, as some of them were of the 
Roman Catholic religion, they sent a special 
delegation to the Pope of Rome, and asked 
his opinion on the subject, whether or not it 
was right for them to transport Africans to 
the colonies in order to make slaves of them. 
The Pope, after mature deliberation, replied 
that he had searched the Scriptures and ma- 
turely considered the subject, and that he 
found, on examining the ninth chapter of the 
Book of Genesis, that Noah had pronounced 
a curse upon Ham, that he positively should 
be a servant of servants, and that the African 
race w^ere the descendants of Ham, and that 
it was right and proper in a moral point of 
view for them to engage in the business, and, 
as far as he was concerned, he would grant 
them the privilege; in consequence of wliich 
a company was tlien formed by the nobility 
of England and some of the French nobility 
with the navigator Hudson to embark in the 
slave trade. A few vessels were fitted out in 
New York and Boston and sent to the coast 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 17 

of Africa for slaves ; the vessels were gone 
but a short time before they returned^ well 
stored with slaves which cost them but a 
trifle, and they were soon disposed of at a 
very large profit in New York and Boston. 
Hence originated the first traffic in African 
slaves in the United States; but they had 
been dealt with as slaves in Africa and many 
other places long before. 

When they were first brought on board the 
vessel, they supposed that the white people 
intended to eat them, and had bought them 
for food; as many of the African tribes eat 
their prisoners, they supposed that the white 
people would do so likewise. But great was 
their surprise and joy when they were in- 
formed that they were intended to work, and 
would be treated with humanity and kind- 
ness as friends. Most of them were entirely 
naked when purchased, and others had only 
a small piece of raw hide on their hips to 
hide their nakedness; and when they were 
clothed and informed that they were intended 
as slaves, that if they behaved well they 
would be protected by their masters, clothed, 
fed, and properly cared for, they could scarcely 



18 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

be made to believe it ; and after they were 
convinced of the fact, not one could be in- 
duced to return to their old condition, but 
rejoiced that they had been rescued from the 
hands of their own race, and saved from the 
horrid fate of being eaten by the Africans. 

African slavery is objected to by some, be- 
cause they say it is morally wrong for one 
individual to keep another as a slave to serve 
him. To such I would say, where do you go 
to get your moral code, is it not to the Bible ? 
It certainly is to the Bible, the great book of 
morals and religion, we must all look for the 
best code of morals which has ever been given 
to the human race. Then if you believe the 
Bible, you must believe that African slavery 
is right, and that slavery existed in the 
world long before America was discovered by 
Columbus, and was very common among the 
Jews immediately after their entrance into 
the promised land. That it is entirely con- 
sistent with the doctrine of the Holy Bible, 
see Leviticus, chap. 25th, verses 44, 45, and 
4G, which reads thus : Both thy bondmen 
and thv bondmaids, which thou shalt have, 
shall be of the heathen that are round about 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY." 19 

yon ; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bond- 
maids. Moreover, of the children of the 
strangers that do sojourn among you, of them 
shall ye buy and of their families that are 
with you, which they begat in your land; and 
they shall be your possession. And ye shall 
take them as an inheritance for your children 
after you, to inherit them for a possession; 
they shall be your bondmen forever. 

Thus we find that the children of Israel 
were not only permitted to make slaves or 
bondmen of the heathen, but actually com- 
manded so to do, and that such should be 
their bondmen to them and their children 
forever. 

And, as before observed, the Africans are 
heathens, the descendants of Ham; that the 
different races of men commenced with the 
family of Noah; that Shem was red. Ham 
black, and Japheth a white man; and that a 
miracle was wrought in the birth of Noah's 
three sons, as well as in the preservation of 
that family from the destruction of the flood ; 
that as the earth was to be repeopled by the 
family of Noah, God formed the difierent 
races in that peculiar family according to his 



20 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

good will and pleasure, and suited the dif- 
ferent branches for the purposes for which 
they were designed. That we are warranted 
in coming to this conclusion, is very evident. 
The word Ham means black; thus, Ham being 
black at his birth, and of different color from 
any other individual, Avas called after his 
color; and not only this, his descendants are 
also, in most cases, distinguished by kinky 
wool on their heads, like a merino sheep, only 
it is black and coarse ; other races have hair 
on their heads. Thus it seems that Ham, the 
black son of Noah, possessed a color in con- 
formity with his disposition, for he was cer- 
tainly very vile and base to have treated his 
father with such indignity as he did in mak- 
ing sport of him, and pointing him out as an 
object of ridicule. Ham was noticed by his 
two brothers to rush out of his father's tent 
almost bursting with laughter; but as soon as 
the fit had somewhat abated, Shcm and Ja- 
pheth made inquiry respecting the cause of 
so much mirth and uproar, when they found 
that their lather, Noah, was laying naked, 
exposed; fuiding a garment, they seized it and 
placed it on their shoulders and walked back- 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 21 

ward and covered him with it; when Noah 
^woke from his wine and knew what his 
youngest son had done unto him, he said: 
Cursed be Canaan, (Ham;) a servant of ser- 
vants shall he be unto his brethren. And he 
said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem; and 
Canaan (Ham) shall be his servant. God 
shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell 
in the tents of Shem; and Canaan (Ham) 
shall be his servant. 

But, lest the reader should become per- 
plexed respecting the application of this 
anathema, on account of the text above re- 
ferred to being in the English, cursed Canaan, 
instead of cursed Ham, as it should have been 
translated, we state that the Arabic copy of 
the Book of Genesis, which is a language of 
equal authority with the Hebrew, and origin- 
ally the very same, reads. Cursed be Ham, the 
father of Canaan ; a servant of servants shall 
he be unto his brethren. 

In this sense it has ever been understood 
by all the commentators, in every age, on the 
sacred writings. Bishop Newton thus under- 
stood the passage, who also refers the reader 

3 



22 A UISTORY AND DEFENSE 

to the Arabic Bible for the true reading, as 
does also Adam Clark. 

This light and frivolous disposition of Ham, 
and great want of filial respect for his parents, 
has extended itself to his whole posterity. 
The negroes of the United States and Africa, 
and elsewhere, are all given to loud laughter, 
game-making, and sport with everything 
around them, and a great want of reverence 
or respect for parents; they will frequently 
laugh at trivial matters so loud that they can 
be heard at the distance of half a mile or 
more. After the Hood, Shem, who became a 
high priest, and is by historians considered 
to be the same as Melchizedek, preached to 
the increasing population of the descendants 
of Noah ; but Ham and his posterity gave no 
heed to him, but forsook the true religion 
and became idolators, and thus became the 
most base, vile, and degraded of all others of 
the human race. Bowen, in his travels in 
Central Africa, says that he found some 
cities containing sixty thousand inhabitants, 
and some of them had their iarms as far dis- 
tant as twenty miles, and none of them even 
possessed so much as a sled to haul it in with. 



OP AFRICAN SLAVERY. 2S 

but packed their provisions on their backs, 
entirely destitute of any of the improvements 
in arts and sciences ; they live in little mud 
huts, made of mud and sticks, and many of 
them go naked winter and summer, as the 
beast of the forest, and feed on lizards, snakes, 
or any vile thing they can get hold of, and 
are entirely void of chastity, giving a loose 
rein to their animal passions; they cohabit 
promiscuously with one another, and their 
lust is not confined to one another, but in 
many cases, men with each other, and with 
beasts ; they are continually at war, one tribe 
with another, and they do not scruple to eat 
each other as quick as they would eat a bit 
of a hog or a monkey ; in their market-places 
they frequently have the limbs of each other 
hung up in the stall for sale as they would a 
sheep or a pig; and thus in this degraded, 
fiillen state they live, devoid of religion, 
morals, or even common decency ; and there- 
fore the great necessity of the balance of 
mankind who feel for the sufferings of human 
beings, and would wish to ameliorate their 
woes and bring to a knowledge of the truth 
and of the religion of Jesus Christ, uniting 



24 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

ill their ofTorts to bring them in a state of 
shavery to Christian masters, who will correct 
their morals, feed and clothe them, and make 
them work and cultivate the soil, so as to 
become useful to themselves and the balance 
of mankind. This can only be done by first 
reducing them to a state of slavery; mission- 
aries have heretofore been sent among them 
to no purpose ; they pay no attention to their 
teachings, but fref_[uently kill and eat them 
for food. 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 25 



CHAPTER 11. 

The Utility of African Slavery, and of Slavery in tlie United 
States; and Transportation.— Further Bible Evidence of 
"Slavery. 

That the African is only an incnmberer of 
the ground in his wild and native state, needs 
only to be pointed to, in the wilds of Africa; 
for although it contains a population of per- 
haps two hundred millions of souls, they pro- 
duce nothing for transportation; they manu- 
facture nothing; they invent nothing; the 
wdld African is but a little ahead of the 
orang-outang in his habits. They possess a 
fine fertile country, yet it is comparatively 
uncultivated. The African possesses a strong 
frame, a robust constitution, a fertile country, 
and delightful climate; yet he walks about, 
up and down in the forest, as naked as when 
he came into the world, feeding on fruits and 
reptiles, fills himself and lays down and sleeps, 
and then rises and pursues the same course 
again, occasionally meeting with the child of 
3* 



26 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

an enemy and killing and eating it as he would 
a rabbit or squirrel ; and such is his native con- 
dition. But when they are taken by the white 
people and taught to work in the field, they 
are clothed and fed as human beings, they be- 
come as a matter of necessity civilized, and, by 
frequently hearing the gospel preached, they 
become Christianized and elevated far above 
their former condition in the scale of human 
beings. By their labor they become very use- 
ful, and add greatly to the commerce of the 
world. In the United States there are now, 
in A.D. 18G0, about three and a half millions 
of African slaves, the proceeds of whose 
labor contribute, in exports to foreign coun- 
tries, more than one-half of the exports in 
value of all the exports of the nation. In 
the single article of cotton alone, the nation 
exports 3,500.000 bales, which, at §50 per 
bale, is worth Si 75,000,000, the proceeds of 
slave labor, besides toljacco, sugar, and ilour, 
and many other articles, which would amount 
to more than fii'ty millions more — making a 
.<um-total of exports from slave labor alone 
amount to over two hundred and twenty 
millions of dollars annual] \-, IVom the United 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 27 

States to other countries, besides what is con- 
sumed at home, bringing in return the pro- 
ducts and manufactures of other countries an 
amount equivalent in exchange for their ex- 
ports; thus giving an impetus to trade and 
commerce of the world and manufactories of 
more than four hundred millions of dollars 
annually, by being kept in a state of servi- 
tude and made to cultivate the soil, for which 
they were intended; w^hile the whole popula- 
tion of Africa, with her two hundred millions 
of people in a free and savage state, ex- 
ports nothing, adds nothing, does nothing for 
themselves or others. I speak of Africa pro- 
per, the kinky heads, which comprise a large 
portion. If there is any place in Africa which 
bids fair to achieve anything in the way of 
civilization and the arts, it is the little colony 
of Liberia, peopled by about six thousand 
American slaves who have been sent over 
from the United States: and they feel as 
much above the common wild African as a 
white man would above his slave, or more so; 
and should they be left to themselves, with- 
out the fostering care of the white man, 
would soon degenerate into their ancient 



28 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

barbarism ^vith the rest of the natives. Thus 
we see, that for the good of the African him- 
self, for the welfare of mankind in general, 
that the African may be well provided for 
while he lives, and brought to a condition 
where he may become a Christian, and the 
welf\ire of his immortal soul promoted by 
hearing the gospel preached, and that he may 
become useful and happy in his sphere of 
existence, it is absolutely necessary that he 
should be made a slave of and placed under 
a master, who will correct him for his faults 
and teach him to behave himself as a human 
being, and make him work for his support. 
A negro will never construct a steam-engine 
or a railroad, or make any new addition to 
anything of the kind; yet with a good over- 
seer he can dig up the iron ore, aid in melting 
it ; can dig in the ground and aid in making 
a railroad, and add as much in the construc- 
tion of it as white men, with some one to 
construct and diivct; and in a state of slavery 
do as much towards internal improvements 
and [)romoting the arts and sciences as white 
men. while in a free state they would not 
.strike a lick or do anything. Therefore, the 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 29 

three and a half millions of slaves in the 
United States are doing more for the com- 
merce of the nation, its internal improvement 
at home, and the promotion of industry in 
the manufacturing nations of the earth, than 
the same number of people of any color on 
any part of the globe. Then, is it not right, 
is it not proper, is it not perfectly in con- 
formity with religion and the doctrine of the 
Holy Bible, that the African should be placed 
in bondage to the white man — the only con- 
dition in which it seems he can exist as a 
moral human being and be provided for, or 
in any manner content, useful, or happy ? It 
seems to me, that no rejQecting, rational man 
can doubt for a moment the absolute neces- 
sity of making him a slave — for which he was 
intended. But, it is contended, that even if 
this should be the case, that the African is 
more useful, more happy, and better provided 
for ill a state of slavery than when free, that 
unless we can find that it is in accordance 
with the doctrine of the Bible, it is morally 
wrong. To this, I would again refer the 
reader to Leviticus, xxv. 44-46 verses : Both 
thy bondmen and thy bondmaids, which thou 



30 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

8lialt liavo, shall be of (from, in Hebrew) 
the heathen that are around alxjut you; of 
(from) them shall ye buy bondmen and bond- 
maids. Moreover, of (from) the children of 
the strangers that do sojourn among you, of 
them sliall you buy, and of their families 
that are with you, which they begat in your 
land; and they sliall be your possession, and 
ye shall take them as an inheritance for your 
children after yon to inherit them for a pos- 
session; they shall be your bondmen forever: 
but over your brethren the children of Israel 
ye shall not rule, one over another with 
rigor. This shows that the servitude is per- 
petual. They shall be your bondmen for- 
ever, Lc olaitm, and the heathen bondmen are 
transmitted as property by inheritance to the 
children. 

There is in the Hebrew language, as well 
as Hebrew society, two classes of servants, 
represented by two distinct words indicative 
of diil'erent positions or relations. These are 
hired servants and l)on(lmen ; the former is 
represented by one word and the latter by 
another; these are of dilTerent meaning and 
ori'-'m. 



OF AFEICAN SLAVERY. 31 

A hired servant, in the law of Moses, is 
called saclieer ; a bondman or bond-servant 
is uniformly denominated geliced : the latter is 
never called sacJicer, nor the former gelived. 
Like doulos in the Septuagint and in the 
New Testament, gelived includes divers sorts 
of servants not receiving wages, but saclieer 
indicates simply a hired servant. 

They are sometimes found in the same 
verse in contrast, Leviticus, xxv. 39 : If thy 
brother that dwelleth by thee become poor, 
and be sold to thee, thou shalt not compel 
him to serve as a gelived, a bond-servant, but 
as a saclieer, a hired servant. Again, verse 
42 : He shall not be sold as a gelived, a bond- 
man. Verse 44 : Of the heathen thou shalt 
or mayest buy bondmen, gelived. Thus, it is 
clear, that among the Jews there were two 
kinds of servants: gelived, the bond-servant, 
or slave as we term it, and saclieer, the 
hired servant 3 and both classes were toler- 
ated by the laws of Moses, and nowhere 
condemned in the New Testament. Taking 
then the Bible as it is, we nowhere find any- 
thing condemning the principle of slavery of 
the heathen 3 but we find it has been toler- 



32 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

ated and permitted by the laws of Moses, as 
laid down in the Holy Bible, and practiced 
by the Jews, the flivored people of God ; and 
by others so long that the memory of man 
runneth not to the contrary; and our observa- 
tion teaches us, from fair illustration, that the 
African race is elevated in the scale of human 
beings by being placed in a state of bondage; 
that they are only useful when thus situated; 
that they are more happy, better provided 
for, more moral, better satisfied in that state, 
and prefer it to any other. 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 33 



CHAPTER III. 

Nature of the African race — 1st. His Physical Qualities; 2d. 
His Peculiar Color and Hair 5 3d. His Mental Qualities ; 4th. 
His Disposition and Habits. 

In many respects tlie African negro or 
kinky heads differ materially from the white 
people, and the Indian or red man, in his 
physical as well as his mental capacity. The 
negro is generally stouter built, possessing 
heavier muscles and harder bones than either 
the white man or the Indian; the bones of 
the negro are more firm and much harder 
to break, and the skull of the negro is thicker, 
as has been frequently proven by anatomists 
by investigation: and a blow on the head, 
which would kill a white man or an Indian, 
will scarcely stagger a negro, which shows 
conclusively that he is particularly intended 
to perform the rough, heavy work of the 
world, and to endure hardships. The head of 
the negro is also different in shape from any 
other : they are generally flat on top and low 
in front ; and the skull can easily be distin- 

4 



34 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

guislied from any other, both from the pecu- 
liar shape and thickness. They generally 
have more robust frames and stouter chests 
than any other race. The pure negro is jet 
black, or nearly so, has black, kinky wool, 
somewhat coarser than that of a coarse w^ool 
sheep, black eyes, and a flat nose without any 
gristle on the point. I can tell a negro in 
the dark, merely by feeling his nose; he has 
also a Hat foot, without much hollow, and a 
long heel; a negro's track is easily distin- 
guished from any other. These are promi- 
nent traits in his formation, which are easily 
discerned; but there are many other material 
differences in his physical formation from that 
of any other class of the human race. He is 
not as susceptible to disease as the other races, 
and is capable of bearing more fatigue and 
for a greater length of time, and requires less 
sleep than either of the other races; when 
they sleep their sleep is very sound, and 
they are very hard to wake, but they are 
soon refreshed by it. They Avill often work 
all day, from daylight until dark, only sto}> 
ping long enougli to eat their meals, doing 
the heaviest kind of labor, and after their 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 35 

masters have retired to rest at night, after 
ten o'clock, will put out from home and stroll 
about in the neighborhood six or seven miles 
round, and return home about three hours 
before day, sit down by the fire and nod 
until daybreak, jump up and be ready to go 
to work again, work all day and run about 
again at night, the next as before, without 
experiencing the least inconvenience. 

Such hardship as would completely pros- 
trate a white man does not appear to affect 
them in the least. Among the slaves of the 
United States there are a great many different 
shades of color — from the deep black or full- 
blooded Africans to the bright mulatto ; but 
all other shades brighter than the deep black 
is caused by amalgamation, or mixing of the 
white blood with the black, and not at all 
from the climate. The full-blooded African 
will retain his black color anywhere for any 
length of time without any change, and also 
the kinky heads without any respect to cli- 
mate; and it is immaterial where they are 
born, the children will be as black as their 
ancestors, and possess every other quality of 
their ancestors; and when crossed with the 



36 A niSTORY AND DEFENSE 

white race, they partake more of the negro 
than the white man, both in complexion and 
disposition. In stature, the kinky -headed 
negro is about the height of EngHsh or 
American, varying from five feet in height 
to six feet six inches; and although they are 
generally much stouter and heavier muscled, 
yet, in general, they are not as active as the 
white race, and cannot run so fast, but can 
hold out much longer. I knew a negro boy, 
about twelve years old, who was stationed at 
a plantation in Clark County, Mississippi, and 
his mother was at another place sixteen miles 
distant; and he would often run away and 
run his best the whole sixteen miles, going at 
the rate of about eight miles an hour, and at 
the end of the sixteen miles did not seem to 
be the least tired or flitigucd. The average 
weight of the African man is from one hun- 
dred and forty to two hundred pounds. They 
are much stouter and stronger, physically, 
than the Dutch, the French, the Germans, 
Spaniards, or any other race; the English 
and Americans are the nearest to them in 
point of physical strength than any other, 
while at the same time they have less Intel- 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 37 

lect than either of these races, which shows 
very clearly that they were not intended to 
construct, but to labor under the instruction 
of others. 

The mental faculties of the African are not 
so great as either of the other races of men, 
although in a physical point of view they are 
unsurpassed; they seem to be incapable of 
much reflection, and almost void of any in- 
ventive genius whatever. Although Africa 
has been settled as long as any other quarter 
of the globe, with a fertile soil and abound- 
ing in minerals of many descriptions, and a 
soil which is capable of most improvement by 
cultivation, there never has as yet emanated 
from a full-blooded, kinky -headed African 
any useful invention, or any improvement in 
the arts and sciences, by which themselves 
or the balance of mankind were the least ben- 
efited or improved, either in mechanics, com- 
merce, the invention of implements of labor, 
the improvement thereon, advancement in 
agriculture, the improvement in morals or 
otherwise; and I defy contradiction to the 
contrary. Although they have frequently 

witnessed the improvements going on in the 
4* 



88 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

surrounding nations, and had specimens of 
the productions of other countries distribu- 
ted among them, and the benefit of Uterary 
travelers frequently among them, they have 
made no advances in civilization or the arts 
and sciences. Of those in the United States 
in a state of slavery, some of them have been 
taught to become tolerably good, rough me- 
chanics, so that they could do good, rough 
plantation work, stock a plow in a rough 
manner, shoe a horse, frame a house, make a 
brick chimney, etc.; but in every case the 
work is rough and will not bear close inspec- 
tion. There never has been a full-blooded 
negro who has ever yet been able to compete 
with a skillful white man in any of the fine 
arts; and I think it impossible that there 
ever will be : any more than that the moon 
can ever shine as bright as the sun. The 
African may be greatly improved from his 
native state of education by cultivating his 
mind and giving him suitable instructions, as 
is evidenced l)y the great superiority of the 
American slave over the wild African in his 
native state in Africa, both in morals, intelli- 
gence, and religion; but they can no more be 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 39 

made equal with the white man than a piece 
of coarse sandstone can be made equal to 
the beautiful marble, or a piece of rough iron 
brought to the pure state of the gold ; or that 
his skin can be changed from black to white, 
or his kinky wool to beautiful, straight hair, 
by education. Man may polish, but God 
makes the material. 

Then, as to the disposition of the Afri- 
can race, they are savages, and their dis- 
position has a downward tendency; naturally 
inclined to degenerate, as the stone that is 
tossed in the air has a tendency to fall to 
the earth — as long as it is held up by force, 
it will stay up, but as soon as let go, it will 
naturally fall to the earth; so, as long as the 
African is forced into a state of civilization 
by the white man and kept up, he will be 
more or less civilized; but as soon as left to 
himself, he will naturally return gradually to 
his ancient state of barbarism. If all of the 
American slaves were turned loose in Africa, 
with all the advantages they now possess, 
with the knowledge they have of the arts 
and sciences, and the knowledge of the Chris- 
tian religion, they would soon eclipse all 



40 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

Africa in their improvements, and subjugate 
the whole country by their knowledge; but 
they would immediately commence degener- 
ating, and in the course of two or three gener- 
ations would degenerate into dark, heathenish 
barbarism, and be as barbarous, ignorant, Ijase, 
and vile as the present population of Africa. 
They are actuated, in most instances, in their 
actions, by the disposition of fear, and have 
no disposition or inclination to respect or obey 
those who permit them to act as they please; 
they prefer a tyrant for a master to any 
other; provided he will treat them with kind- 
ness, it matters not how hard they are com- 
pelled to work, or ^^hat hardships they are 
nuide to endure, if their owners will feed them 
well and clothe them, and protect them; the 
more rigid he is w^ith them, and the better 
discipline he establishes among them, the 
better they will love him, and the more use- 
ful they will be to him. They are naturally 
inclined to be fdtliy in their habits, and negli- 
gent, careless, and wasteful, and it requires the 
strictest kind of attention on the part of their 
owners to keep them in order, and to make 
them take care of their clothing and keep 



OF AFEICAN SLAVERY. 41 

themselves cleanly, and to be made even to 
attend to tlieir own children; of the two in the 
United States, the master is often the greatest 
slave in attending to the welfare of his slaves, 
nursing them when sick and administering to 
their comforts; this is all-important on the 
part of the owner, for the negro will pay but 
little attention to their nearest relatives when 
sick, unless compelled to do so. They are 
naturally inclined to be base and profligate 
in their habits, and consider a free and pro- 
miscuous exercise of their sexual passions 
as the height of all hum^an happiness and 
glory; and it requires the most rigid disci- 
pline on the part of their owners to prevent 
marriages between brother and sister, and 
illicit intercourse between parent and child, 
and even between one male and another; 
and notwithstanding the most rigid discipline, 
they will frequently commit rapes on each 
other's children ; frequently on females under 
ten years old; they seem to inherit this unre- 
strained sexual appetite from their ancestors, 
and look no higher for happiness ; but owing 
to the restrictions placed on them by their 
owners, the constant admonitions to lead a 



42 A HISTORY AXD DEFENSE 

moral and upright life, and the good examples 
continually set before the American, they are 
much less lewd and far better in their prac- 
tice in this behalf than the free African in 
the wilds of Africa, ^vho indulge in an unre- 
strained manner in every species of debauch- 
ery of that kind; and then feed upon the flesh 
of each other, as upon that of a squirrel or 
monkey. It is an evident fact, that by the 
fostering care of the owners of slaves, they 
increase in the United States upwards of ten 
per cent, faster than the whites, according 
to population, as shown by the census of 
1840 and 1S3G, wdiile from every account we 
receive, the African race has been on the de- 
crease in Africa for many years past, owing 
to their sinful, base, and corrupt habits. The 
African has but little of the principles of 
sympathy about him, and when clothed with 
authority becomes the most overbearing tyrant 
in the world, and will frequently abuse their 
authority by inlHcting punishment in a cruel 
manner, merely to show their authority. I 
have known owners of slaves to select the 
most wise and discreet among them as over- 
seers, or drivers ns they are termed, to look 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 43 

over and watch tlie balance, with power to 
whip when they misbehave; and as certain 
as a white man would visit the field, just so 
certain the black driver would begin to whip 
and lash the slaves, whether they deserved it 
or not, just to show his authority, until the 
owner would stop him, if present, or he would 
be rebuked by the white man for his unfeeling 
cruelty. Hence the saying, when a man gets 
into office and commences showing his au- 
thority by cruel and arbitrary actions, that 
he is like a negro driver in a corn-field; this 
expression conveys all that is necessary in 
describing the most bigoted tyrant. 

The African has an inclination to be a 
slave, and really prefers that condition to 
any other; they cannot bear responsibility, 
and when they are well fed and clothed, and 
kept in order, they are decidedly the happiest 
and best contented people in the world; and 
will fight for their masters in a hurry. It is 
altogether a mistake, that if the negroes should 
become the most numerous in a great propor- 
tion, that they would rebel and murder their 
masters and seek to be free; this is not the 
case. If the negroes were in proportion of a 



44 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

thousand to one white man, the white man 
would still keep them in slavery with as 
much ease as he now does, because the negroes 
prefer bondage to freedom, as has been e^dnced 
on various occasions. In many instances, it is 
true, that occasionallj^ there will be restless 
spirits among them, who will occasionally rise 
up and do mischief, and sometimes murder 
their masters; but they are of very rare oc- 
currence; and in a majority of cases, young 
white men are raised up on the plantation 
with their slaves, and they become attached 
to each other, and there is a feeling of rela- 
tionship existing between them, which makes 
them feel very near and dear to each other, 
and the slave would risk his life for his 
master's welfare sooner than for the nearest 
relation he had, and looks to his master as 
his only friend and protector; while, on the 
other liand, although the master would correct 
his slave for his faults when necessary, would 
risk his life in the defense of his slave sooner 
than let him be unjustly abused. As an evi- 
dence of the preference of the African race 
for a state of slavery to any other, they are 
held in Ijondaee bv each other in Africa as 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 45 

well as elsewhere, and make the worst and 
most cruel of masters to each other; the In- 
dians also in the Chocktaw nation own many 
of them; also the Creek, and Cherokee In- 
dians, west of the Mississippi Elver; some of 
these red men of the forest own over two 
hundred African slaves, owned by single in- 
dividuals; the Spaniards also, in Cuba, own a 
great many; yet they quietly submit to sla- 
very — even prefer it to any other state, even 
to serve the wild, red man of the forest. 

A man by the name of Stroud, about the 
year 1836, carried five hundred slaves from 
the State of South Carolina into the northern 
part of Texas, before the State of Texas was 
annexed to the United States, at a time when 
the Cherokee Indians were in a state of hos- 
tilities to the whites, and settled right on the 
borders of the hostile Cherokee country; he 
armed all of his negroes with a good gun, 
taught them the use of fire-arms; had two 
cannon, taught them their use, mustered 
them every day, and whipped the Cherokees 
in several engagements with his negroes; in 
a wild country, where there was no other 
white man within one hundred miles of him, 

5 



46 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

and the negroes only had to kill him oft' to 
be as free as the Indians; yet they stuck to 
him, and looked to him as their only chance 
of safety and protection, and served him as 
faithful as if he had been surrounded by an 
army of a thousand men for his protection, 
and would have killed any man who would 
have dared to injure their master. Does not 
this show a preference for that condition on 
the part of the blacks? It certainly does, in 
the strongest colors; and clearly shows that 
the Africans are destined to be slaves, and 
are satisfied and useful in that condition and 
no other. 

Again, a gentleman by the name of Prince, 
who lives near Bladen Springs, in the State 
of Alabama, a few years before this, went to 
England on some business for the State, 
and carried with him a servant, a negro 
man ntimed Tom; when he got to England 
he tuld Tom that he was as free as his 
master, and he would advise him to remain; 
that ii" he wouhl remain in England, he would 
gi\e him ll\r iiundred dollars to make a start 
in the world, and he mii;ht eventuallv become 
a wealthy man; Tom told his master that he 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 47 

did not wish to remain on any terms, but was 
determined to return with him, and rem.ain 
his slave; his master told him to look around, 
that he would be in England for several 
weeks, and if Tom should determine to stay, 
that he could do so. During the six weeks 
which he remained in England, Tom had 
considerable attention paid to him, and many 
inducements held out to him to remain by 
some of the abolitionists, and his master 
would frequently importune him to remain. 
One day Tom had taken an excursion into 
the country to see how the common poor folks 
lived, as he called them ; and after visiting an 
Irish settlement, he became alarmed, and was 
afraid that his master intended to leave him 
in England against his will ; and went to him 
with tears in his eyes, and told him not to 
think of leaving him in England, or any- 
where else ; that he could not bear the idea 
of being separated from him; that five hun- 
dred dollars would be no inducement with 
his freedom for him to remain ; that the poor 
folks in England w^ere worse off ten times 
than the black folks in the United States; 
that the slaves in. the United States were 



48 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

cared for and provisioned by their masters, 
while the poor folks in England were worse 
slaves in reality than the slaves in the United 
States, and had to supply themselves with 
food and clothing, or starve and go naked. 

While in England, Tom would frequently 
speak of his master s possessions in the United 
States, and spoke of them as his own, and 
assumed a considerable degree of consequence, 
more than his master did, as negroes always 
do; they pride themselves .on their masters' 
possessions, and assume a consequence accord- 
ing to what they consider the consequence of 
their owner; and frequently take the title of 
their masters, as Colonel, Judge, or General, 
and appear much prouder of their title tlian 
their masters, who really have the office and 
title. It is amusing, at times, to see them at 
church, or out on some public occasion; their 
masters often indulge them a great deal, 
where they are faithful, and they generally 
are provided with a fine suit of clothes to 
wear on Sundays and on public occasions. 
To see them dressed out in a suit of fine 
broadcloth, with a white linen shirt and 
line cambric rulUes, with a pair of white kid 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 49 

gloves on, and an umbrella in their hands to 
keep off the sun, strutting about as large as 
life, with a pair of red-topped boots on, while 
their masters present a plain, country gentle- 
man, dressed in plain homespun of his ow^n 
make. The negro likes to have a rich master, 
and cannot bear to be called poor folks' negro ; 
and they would run away from a man who 
only owns one slave, no matter how well he 
is treated, or on what equality, to get on a 
plantation where there are many, regardless 
of how hard the fare may be; a negro would 
prefer a master who owned a hundred slaves, 
if he get nothing but bread to eat, where he 
would be confined to hard labor from day- 
light to dark, to one who only owned him, 
one who would give him all the dainties of 
the world to eat, have them cooked for him, 
and would clothe him well, and give him half 
of his time to work for himself; they would 
run away from such an owner to get to the 
rich man. They have the most dire contempt 
for the poor, ignorant classes of white people, 
and call them poor bucra; but with an intel- 
ligent gentleman, who only owns one as a 
body-servant, they are generally satisfied to 



50 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

remain, yet never grieve «at being sold to a 
wealthier master who owns a great number 
of slaves. 

I knew an instance of a man by the name 
of Brock, who owned a negro man and two 
other negroes, one a woman and the other a 
boy. Brock and his negro man Charles were 
raised up together, and wrestled and sported 
together in their boyhood; the consequence 
was. Brock permitted his negro man Charles 
to do very much as he pleased; Charles only 
worked when his master did, eat what his 
master eat, and was just about as free to act. 
Charles naturally looked with contempt on 
his master, as being no better than himself, 
and wished his master to sell him to some 
rich man who owned more slaves; his master 
refused to do so, and the consequence was, 
Charles ran away, was gone several weeks, 
and at leniith was caught by one of the 
neighbors, who tied him, and in taking him 
home, had to cross a hirge creek in a ferry 
fiat; in crossing the creek, Charles jumped 
into the stream and tried to commit suicide 
by drowning himself, but was pulled out be- 
fore he had time to drown, alleging that he 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 51 

had rather die than to belong to so poor a 
man as his master. His master finding that 
Charles was determined in his resolution, 
sold him to a man in the neighborhood, who 
owned about thirty slaves, and who seldom 
gave them anything more than bread to eat, 
worked them very hard, and allowed them 
but few privileges, where Charles, in his new 
situation, seemed perfectly satisfied and con- 
tented, having procured a master for whom 
he had respect. 

Another instance of the kind occurred 
with a negro man I had in my charge, by 
the name of George^ who belonged to my 
brother's estate, and the law required him to 
be hired out. George v^as one of the best 
and most truthful and fiiithful black men I 
ever knew, and I hired him to a man in the 
neighborhood of Quitman, in the State of 
Mississippi, by the name of Murphy, who 
had no other slaves on his premises, and was 
a very humane man, and treated George in 
every way as one equal ; he gave him plenty 
to eat, and only required him to work when 
he worked, and was very kind to him. 
George stood it about two weeks, when one 



52 A HISTORY AXD DEFENS£ 

day he Avent to Mr. M. and told him he Avanted 
him to hire him out to 8ome white man who 
owned negroes; that he was too lonesome, 
and really could not stand it any longer- 
Mr. M. asked him if he was dissatisfied with 
his fare : he answered he was not, hut, on the 
contrary, Mr. M. had treated him as w^ell and 
as kind as he could wish, and he could ask 
no more; but he wanted to be where there 
were more negroes; that he would prefer 
being on a large farm with a multitude of 
negroes, and eating nothing but bread, than 
to l)e situated where he was, w4th all the 
dainties of the world. The consequence was, 
that George would not be satisfied until 
Murphy had to rehire him, and put him on 
a farm where there were many other slaves; 
where George seemed perfectly satisfied with 
short ration, and cooked it himself. 

I will also mention another instance of 
somewhat siniihir nature. Gen. Alexander 
Trotter owned a slave at the time of his death, 
hy the name of Willoughby, a very trust- 
worthy man, very iiitelligent and sprightly; 
and being the owner of a great many slaves, 
he made Willoughby his overseer, who, under 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 53 

tlie superintendence of his master, soon ac- 
quired the reputation of being a great over- 
seer and an excellent manager. Having rich 
land to cultivate, a great many hands, and 
making large crops, Willoughby was very at- 
tentive to his business, and became a great 
favorite with his master, so much so, that 
when his master died, in a.d. 1847, he made 
his will and gave Willoughby his freedom, 
and willed him, in addition, about one thou- 
sand dollars' worth of property, and a forty- 
acre tract of land as a residence. As soon 
as Willoughby became free and in possession 
of a decent competency, he became very much 
dissatisfied and reckless, commenced drinking, 
and soon became a great drunkard and quite 
a nuisance, having spent a great portion of 
what his master had given him, in the course 
of two or three years. He said he felt very 
unhappy, and did not know what to do ; that 
he was once a happy man, in the lifetime of 
his master, when he had some person to look 
up to and protect him ; but now it seemed to 
him that no one cared for him, and was sorry 
his master was gone ; that if every negro felt 
as he did, that none of them would ever wash 



54 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

to be free; that lie had been miserable ever 
smee he had his freedom. I told him that I 
"Nvas sorry to see him throwing himself away, 
and acting so badly, as I once used to own 
him, and had sold him to my brother; that I 
would take him under my charge, and give 
him land on my farm to cultivate and manage 
for him, and he would have to walk straight, 
and conduct properly, or I would Hog him. 
I then took him under my charge, and fixed 
him up comfortably, and gave him as much 
land as he could cultivate; made him 2:0 to 
work, and forbid him the use of spirituous 
liquors, and kept him in restraint; when he 
became steady and industrious in his habits, 
and is growing rich, and is quite a decent 
man. 

This shows how little they are qualified to 
act for themselves, and the great necessity of 
having some one to control them and keep 
them in order; that when properly managed 
and ke[)t under the proper restraint, they are 
as useful as any other class of the community, 
and the most happy by far; l)ut Avhen set free, 
tliey are not quahfied to manage for them- 
scKes, and soon become nuisances to society, 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 55 

and a burden and a pest to the community, 
and the most degraded and unhappy people 
in the universe. 

Suppose, then, that there are now two hun- 
dred and twenty millions of Africans in the 
wilds of Africa, who are like drones in the 
bee-hive, adding nothing to the commerce of 
the world; roaming wild in the forest, many 
as naked as when they entered into existence, 
feeding upon reptiles and upon the flesh of 
each other, ignorant of the religion of Jesus 
Christ, and practicing all of the abominations 
which their ingenuity can invent or their 
appetites crave ; that twenty millions of these 
black people were taken and made slaves of; 
that they were put under good masters, who 
would take care of them, feed and clothe 
them, and make them work, and teach them 
the Christian religion, and raise them from 
their present state of savage degradation and 
wickedness to the level of the American 
slave; that they could be rendered as useful 
to themselves and the balance of the world 
in the same proportion in numbers as the 
American slaves now are; the consequence 
would be, that they would add twelve hun- 



56 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

dred millions of dollars more to the worth 
and commerce of the Avorld annually than it 
now has, and would give an impetus to trade, 
commerce, and manufacturing in every civil- 
ized nation of the earth unheard of, or un- 
thought of before; and they would be far 
better provided for and attended to than they 
can ever possibly be in the wilds of Africa in 
their present condition. 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 57 



CHAPTER ly. 



The Relative Condition of the African Race. — Comparison be- 
tween the AVild African and American Slave. 



Whex we take a view of Africa and its 
population^ the situation of the country, with 
its advantages, and behold the degradation, 
the barbarism, ignorance, vice, profligacy, in- 
dolence, superstition, bigotry, and wretched- 
ness of its population, we are at once surprised 
and amazed at the very wide difference which 
exist between the blacks in that country and 
the black slave in America; to see how very 
far ahead of them the American slave is ad- 
vanced in civilization, morality, and religion; 
and we are again as much surprised that any 
human being in a civilized country, professing 
to be the follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
and an advocate of his holy religion, and a 
lover of peace and morality, should ever be 
an abolitionist, or desire to free the slaves of 
America and reduce them to such state of 

6 



58 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

degradation and vice, from the high position 
they now occupy, compared to the wild Afri- 
can, and from their present happy and useful 
condition ; that they should turn unheedingly 
from Africa, where human degradation, vice, 
and miser}' exists in all forms; where they 
might do much good by their efforts in amel- 
iorating the suffering of the poor wild Afri- 
can, and with a false pretended sympathy 
pity the condition of the American slaves, 
and with a false notion of religion seek to 
liberate them and place them in a condition 
where, as a matter of necessity, they would 
soon degenerate into the same barbarous con- 
dition as the present race in Africa; and that, 
too, when nine-tenths of American slaves are 
far better situated, and better provided for 
by their owners, than the abolitionists of the 
North are, who so kindly pretend to sympa- 
thize with them; and would spurn the offer, 
if it was proposed that they should change 
places with them. 

In Dahoma, and a few other kingdoms in 
Africa, near the sea-coast, where the slavers 
have frcijuently visited the blacks, some of 
them wear clothes, which they procure from 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 59 

traders along on the coast, but even there 
they are badly clad; an American master 
would be indicted before the courts of the 
country, if he did not clothe his negroes better 
than the best of them, even on the coast, 
where they so frequently mingle with the 
whites; many of them have no other cover- 
ing than a breech-clout around their hips to 
hide their nakedness, made of coarse cloth, 
or skins of wild beasts, while far in the inte- 
rior, where they have not so many advan- 
tages, many of them go naked entirely, if 
we credit the accounts given by respectable 
travelers who have ventured far into the in- 
terior, and have given us descriptions of the 
manners and habits of the people in the in- 
terior. Bo wen, who spent many years in 
Africa, and penetrated far into the interior, 
describes the Africans as going entirely naked 
in some places, and in others, with nothing 
more than a breech-clout and wrapper to hide 
their nakedness. 

The whole country of Africa is governed 
by petty kings, who rule with absolute despot- 
ism as far as their jurisdiction extends; their 
voice is the law, and they frequently put 



60 A niSTORY AND DEFENSE 

their subjects to death, merely for the pur- 
pose of sliovving their authority. These kings 
frequently get at variance one with another, 
and go to war, and in such cases they are 
like other savages: they carry on a war of 
extermination, kill all they come to — men, 
women, and children, and eat one another for 
food, unless they can have a chance of selling 
their prisoners to a slaver; in that case, they 
spare their prisoners and barter them for 
goods. These tribes, some two or more, are 
continually at war with each other, and it is 
seldom or never the case that the whole 
country is at peace; in this way, at times, 
whole provinces are laid waste, and the in- 
habitants entirely destroyed ; repeopled again, 
and again destroyed at another remote period ; 
and there is but little prospect of affairs ever 
being much better, until the country is con- 
quered by some civilized nation, and the whole 
of the natives enslaved and put to work 
as the American negroes now are. Then, 
and not until then, will Africa be at peace, 
and her natives become civilized, useful, and 
hap[)3'. The natives are very fond of dancing, 
and Bowen describes them as putting on a 



Illl»i\\ 




OF AFKICAN SLAVERY. 61 

great many awkward airs and gestures in 
that kind of exercise, and those who can 
place themselves in the most numerous and 
awkward positions are considered the best 
dancers. Their houses are little huts made 
of mud and sticks, rudely constructed, and 
often no other furniture than a few leaves 
and some grass on the dirt floor as a bed, and 
a pot to boil their food in, among the most 
civilized, while at other places they live in 
caves or hollow trees, and eat their food raw 
like the hogs. In the northern part of Africa, 
there is a small race of people called Earth- 
mans, about three feet high ; they live in the 
ground and burrow like rabbits, go entirely 
naked, and are unable to contend against the 
larger race; the consequence is, that when- 
ever a large African meets with an Earthman, 
he never fails to butcher him and make soup 
of his carcass; they will kill an Earthman 
and eat him with as little compunction of 
conscience as an American negro would kill 
an opossum, and do it with as much sport. 

As little is yet known of Africa as any 
country on the globe by civilized man; the 
country has never as yet been entirely 
6* 



62 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

traversed by any traveler, and there is no 
doubt but there are many other petty king- 
doms and despotisms within its borders, of 
which there has never yet been any account 
given to the world. Tagard, in his travels, 
ventured several hundred miles into the inte- 
rior, and visited many of their petty kings, 
but has never explored the extreme northern 
regions; as did also Bowen, who spent several 
years among them as a missionary, and visited 
Zoruba, Mahony, Monrovia, and many other 
provinces, of which they have given us some 
accounts; but of the far northern regions 
they can tell us nothing, and they yet re- 
main to be explored. There is no doubt but 
that it has frequently been attempted to be 
explored, and the travelers were captured 
and eaten by the natives. Some of the tribes 
of Africa are Mohammedans, and acquired 
their religion no doubt by their frequent in- 
tercourse with the Arabs; but many of them 
are idolators, and worship idols, and we have 
accounts given by travelers in Africa of some 
of the tribes there worshiping the devil. 

The country in Africa abounds with fruits 
of various description, which grow wild in the 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 03 

woods, and constitute a principal part of the 
food of the natives. The cocoa-nut grows wild 
in many phaces, also the pineapple, and the 
plantain, and the yam : upon such food they 
exist and feed. In some places they culti- 
vate the pinder, or ground peas, and the yam ; 
this they roast, or boil in a pot. The yam is 
a favorite dish with all classes, and the coun- 
try produces it in abundance, and it is culti- 
vated for the purpose; the woods abound also 
in monkeys in great abundance, and the Afri- 
can is very fond of their flesh. 

Such is the condition of the negro race in 
a free state in Africa; they are never safe, 
always exposed, either to the cruel tyranny 
of their kings, the ferocity of their savage 
and blood-thirsty neighbors, or the ravages of 
famine; are destitute of every necessary of 
life, entire strangers to luxuries, void of the 
knowledge of the true religion of Jesus 
Christ, and sunk into the lowest state of 
idolatry and degradation. 

While, on the other hand, take a view of 
the American negro on his master's planta- 
tion : we find him well clothed to suit every 
season of the year, with comfortable clothes 



6-4 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

for his bod}', and shoes for liis feet; we enter 
his habitation, and there we find he has a 
comfortable, neat habitation to protect him 
from the weather, a comfortable mattress or 
bed on which to rest his head when tired or 
fatigued, w^ith every comfort for his support. 
We find him intelligent and contented; he 
can converse on the subject of the Christian 
religion with heart-felt piety, and in many 
cases point to the time of being at some 
preaching where a white man had preached, 
when he was converted, and felt the saving 
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ shed abroad 
in his soul. He rises early in the morning, 
puts on his clothes, goes whistling and hap- 
pily to his work; by his labor, fields are 
cleared, fences made; corn, wheat, potatoes, 
cotton, and every variety of valuable plants 
and seeds are produced in abundance; by his 
labor, the iron ore is dug up out of the earth, 
and the railroads are graded, steam saw-mills 
are kept at work, and cotton furnished for 
every civilized nation in the world; and he 
glories in beholding the earth yielding her 
fruits in abundance from the ellect of his 
labor. lie rests secure under the protection 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 65 

of his master, and is never afraid of being- 
eaten by his neighbors; he is no idohitor or 
Mohammedan; he has no use for idols, but 
worships his God, and acknowledges Jesus 
Christ as his Saviour. They generally have 
a plenty to eat, a plenty to wear, and a plenty 
to do, and with this they are satisfied and 
apparently the best contented and happiest 
people in the world. 

But some will say, your slaveholders in 
the United States sometimes use their slaves 
cruel, and sometimes kill them; how can all 
this happen, if your slaves are the happiest 
people in the world? To this I answer, that 
sometimes a slave is killed, but it is generally 
a matter of necessity, in order to control 
them ; that sometimes there are some so very 
bad that their owners are compelled to kill 
them. But, after all, there are not one-half as 
many slaves killed by white men in the slave- 
holding States as there are white men killed 
by one another in the same States, or in 
the non-slaveholding States, in proportion to 
numbers; and in all the slave States put to- 
gether there are not as many negroes killed 
annually, by white men, as are butchered by 



06 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

a single African king in bis petty dominion : 
not one-tenth as many as are killed by Great 
Britain, in sending her subjects to be shaves 
in the wars; or France, or Spain, or any other 
nation. And as to cruelty, a master is not al- 
lowed to inflict any cruel or unusual ill-treat- 
ment on his slave by the laws of the country, 
and if he does so, he is liable to be indicted 
and punished ; and we more frequently hear 
of cruel and unusual ill-treatment in the non- 
slaveholding States inflicted by white people 
on each other, than we do in the slaveholding 
States on slaves. The slaves are protected 
by the laws of the country and their owners, 
and it is to the interest of the slaveholder to 
see that his slaves are properly treated; and 
it is very rarely the case that a slaveholder 
ever unnecessarily abuses his slaves, or per- 
mits it to be done by others. 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 67 



CHAPTER Y. 

The Probable Result as to Universal Slavery of the African 
Race. — All Civilized Nations would be benefited by having 
them as Slaves. — Their Probable Destiny. — The Destruction 
of the English Possessions in the West Indies by Freeing their 
Slaves. — Evil Result of Freeing the Slaves in San Domingo. 

Taking it for granted, then, that the xifrican 
race was intended, from the beginning, to he 
slaves ; that their physical and mental organi- 
zation are so constructed as to fit them for 
that condition; that they are the only people 
in the world who will submit to be kept in 
bondage by their own color, and men of every 
other nation, whether they are in the ascend- 
ency in numbers or not; that a state of slavery 
is the only one in which the black man can 
exist as a moral and an intelligent human 
being; that it is in that condition alone he 
is capable of being of any service, either to 
himself or the balance of mankind; and that 
in that condition he is as useful, or more so, 
than any other class of human beings, both 



68 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

to himself and the rest of mankind; that 
it is in that condition alone he is by any 
means happy or contented; and that by his 
peculiar organization, he prefers to be a slave 
to being free, — we can come to but one con- 
clusion as to the final destiny of the whole 
African race, and that is, that they will 
eventually all be slaves; that the wdiole race 
of the descendants of Ham will eventualh^ 
be brought under that curse which was pro- 
nounced b}' Noah, shortly after the flood, on 
Ham, for his Avickedness and his disobedi- 
ence, that he should be a servant of ser- 
vants; that the descendants of Shem and 
Japheth, when they shall find that all of 
their eftbrts to raise the descendants of their 
brother Ham in the scale of human beings, 
from their present degraded and vile condi- 
tion in a state of freedom, shall fail; when 
they shall be brought to see that they have 
invariably pursued the wrong course in trying 
to civilize Africa as she is, and that all of 
their eilbrts will l)e vain; that the only con- 
dition in which the sons of Ham are at all 
hap])y, cimtented, civilized, and useful, is in 
a state of slavery, for which they were in- 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 69 

tended; that a state of slavery is the only 
one in which they will thrive and prosper; 
and that, in that state, they are capable of 
civilization and being Christianized, and are 
capable, in an eminent degree, of aiding and 
assisting in the support of themselves, and 
adding much to the common stock for the 
benefit of the whole, — they will bring them 
all to a state of bondage, and place them 
under masters and overseers, that they may 
fulfill the purpose for which they are so well 
qualified and seem to be designed; that Eng- 
land, France, Russia, Prussia, Austria, the 
whole of the United States, and everj' civil- 
ized nation in the world, will have the Afri- 
can as a slave; that thev would enslave them 
as a matter of benevolence, if nothing more, 
seeing that they cannot exist in any other 
condition as civiHzed human beings. They 
may experiment for awhile, by continuing to 
liberate those who are in a state of bondage, 
from a false notion of Christian duty; but 
when they find that by thus setting them 
free, they destroy whole continents, by lay- 
ing waste a country which has been kept in 
cultivation by slave labor; that they destroy 

7 



70 A niSTORY AND DEFENSE 

the commerce of the world, and break down 
the manufacturing interest everywhere, and 
reduce the shave, from a condition of plenty 
and protection, to a state of starvation and 
degradation ; that in trying to free the slave, 
they are bringing a curse upon him, and on 
themselves, and fighting against the immuta- 
ble decrees of God, — they will then turn and 
pursue the only proper course to effect the 
object which many of the abolitionists now 
pretend to have in view, to raise the African 
in the scale of human beings, and teach them 
the Christian religion, by bringing all those 
who are in a wild state of freedom into bond- 
age. Suppose, for a moment, that the three 
and a half millions of slaves now in the 
United States were set free, what would be 
the effect of such a course on the United 
States and the rest of the world? The con- 
sequence would be, that every cotton factory 
in the world would stop operations, and 
not less than one hundred thousand white 
persons in Europe and the United States, 
who are engaged in the manufacturing of 
cotton goods, be thrown out of employment; 
the whole of the Southern slaveholding States 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 71 

would be left barren and uncultivated, and 
instead of exporting upwards of three hun- 
dred millions of dollars' worth of exports into 
foreign countries, and importing as much in 
return, as they now do, they would not export 
one dollar's worth. The shipping interest 
would feel the effect, and dwindle away for 
the want of freights ; for the want of custom- 
house duties, the government would have to 
resort to direct taxation to make up the defi- 
ciencies, and thus indirectly enslave the white 
people in all of the non-slaveholding States, 
in order to liberate the blacks, who, to make 
the best of it, would only be as so many 
drones in the hive, who would have to be 
supported by the whites. But this is not all; 
the whites and the blacks can never exist to- 
gether in any country in a state of equality : 
a murderous, exterminating war would com- 
mence immediately, in the which one party 
or the other would soon be exterminated and 
killed off. If the whites should kill off the 
blacks, they would do nothing more in the 
slaveholding States than barely to make a 
support; the climate is such that white men 
cannot cultivate the soil to much advantage, 



72 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

while the negro is admirably adapted to it. 
If the negroes should succeed, there would 
soon be a country of black savages, in a few 
generations, as barbarous and degraded as the 
wild Africans now in Africa; and all of this 
beautiful country, now in a high state of cul- 
tivation, on the sea-board, in the slaveholding 
States, rendered useless to all the world, and 
left a barren waste, to be inhabited by a set of 
wild, black, cannibal barbarians, who would 
be ever and anon a pest to the border white 
States, far more terrible than any ancient 
Indian tribe. Of the proceeds of slave labor 
in the fourteen slaveholding States of the 
United States, there is now exported about 
three hundred millions of dollars' worth annu- 
ally, and there is about twice as much kept 
at home, for home consumption, which would 
make, as the probable estimate of the whole 
amount of slave labor in the United States, 
at about nine hundred millions of dollars' 
worth, an estimate of more than one-half of 
the entire production of the whole nation; 
an item greatly to be considered in the 
annals of national importance. 

Just see what the result was, in the Island 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 73 

of San Domingo, when the French government 
declared the slaves of that island to be free; 
the consequence was, that instead of showing 
themselves grateful for the favor the govern- 
ment had done them, they immediately ex- 
terminated the whites, and France lost her 
possession of the island entirely, and the 
blacks set up a government of their own, 
under which they were more persecuted than 
under the government of their former mas- 
ters; and, although it has not been sixty 
years since the occurrence, the blacks have 
since greatly degenerated in their morals and 
civilization, and, in the course of one century 
more, will be in as bad a state of barbarism 
and savage ignorance as the inhabitants of 
Africa, unless again enslaved by some civil- 
ized nation. Look at the British possessions 
in the West Indies, where a few years ago 
their islands flourished and prospered as the 
rose, under the influence of African slave 
labor; and now, since they have liberated 
their slaves, within a few years past, their 
islands are valueless and a dead expense to 
the nation, and the negro population in a far 
worse condition than before. 
7* 



74 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

The Parliament of Great Britain, in a.d. 

1832, liberated her African slaves, and appro- 
priated out of the public treasury £21,000,- 
000, which is equivalent to §105,000,000, to 
indemnify the owners of the slaves. For the 
success of this experiment. Professor Josiah 
Priest, A.M., and member of the Antiquarian 
Society of Nev/ York, says, in his valuable 
work on '^ Bible Evidence of Slavery," that a 
recent letter from Jamaica states, that the 
poverty and industrial prostration of the is- 
land are almost incredible; it sa^'s that, since 

1833, out of six hundred and fifty sugar 
estates then in cultivation, more than one 
hundred and fifty have been abandoned, and 
the works broken up; this has thrown out of 
cultivation over 200,000 acres of rich land, 
which, in 1832, gave employment to about 
30,000 laborers, and yielded over 15,000 
hogsheads of sugar and GOOO puncheons of 
rum. During the same period, over 500 coffee 
plantations have been abandoned, and their 
works broke'U up; this threw out of cultiva- 
tion over 200,000 acres more of land, which in 
lb32 required the labor of over 30,000 men. 
These experiments show very clearly the 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 75 

great evils which result from liberating the 
African from his state of bondage to the 
white race. Is there any man, with a single 
spark of Christian feeling within his breast, 
who would desire to see the black slaves of 
the United States set free, with all these 
lights before his eyes, when the inevitable 
consequence would be extermination of the 
whole race in the end, and the massacre of 
thousands of the white population in the 
bloody controversy which would ensue; a 
stoppage to the manufacturing interest in 
cotton goods all over the world, and a com- 
plete overthrow of commerce in every civil- 
ized nation? Those who would desire such a 
scene, are surely blind to observation, reason, 
and revelation, or else, like Beelzebub, are 
enemies to the whole human race. 



A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 



CHAPTER yi. 

The reople of the Slave States, of all others, have a right to 
own their Slaves. — Slavery introduced by Great Britain and 
France into the United States. — Judicial Decisions by the 
Courts of Great Britain and the United States on the Subject 
of African Slavery. 

The thirteen colonies which, on the 4th 
day of July, a.d. 1776, asserted their inde- 
pendence, were governed hy British laws. 
Our ancestors, in their emigration to this 
country, brought with them the common law 
of England as their birthright; they adopted 
its principles for their government as far as 
it was not incompatible with the peculiarities 
of their situation, in a rude and unsettled 
country. Great Britain, then, having the 
sovereignty over them, possessed the power 
to regulate their institutions, to control their 
commerce, and give laws to their intercourse 
with all the nations of the earth. Great 
Britain thus exercising sovereign power of 
the thirteen colonies, did establish slavery in 



or AFRICAN SLAVERr. iT 

tliem; did maintain and protect the institu- 
tion; did carry on, foster, and support the 
African sLave-trade, and forbade the colonies 
permission, either to emancipate or export 
their slaves, and forbade them from inaugu- 
rating any legislation in diminishing or dis- 
couraging the institution. 

The first permanent settlement made on 
this continent by the English, was made 
under a charter granted in a.d. 1606, in the 
fourth year of James I., to Sir Thomas Gates 
and his associates. A few unsuccessful at- 
tempts had previously been made by others, 
but the first permanent settlement made 
under the authority of the Crown was made 
in 1606. That charter was superseded by a 
quo warranto, issued at the instance of the 
British Crown; and in a.d. 1620, another 
charter was granted to the Duke of Lenox 
and his associates, who were incorporated un- 
der the name of the Plymouth Company : to 
that Company the coast was granted from the 
40th to the 48th degree of north latitude. This 
charter was followed by successive grants to 
different noblemen and companies, until the 
entire coast was disposed of. In a.d. 1664, 



78 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

all the territory was granted to the Duke of 
York, as far south as Delaware Bay; and in 
1663 and 1660, the entire coast, extending 
from the 29tli degree of north latitude to 
that celebrated line of 36° 50' north, since so 
famous in the history of our intestine disputes, 
was granted to Lord Clarendon and his asso- 
ciates. Thus was conveyed the whole coast 
comprised within our present limits. 

And before this very first settlement, the 
slave-trade had been inaugurated and estab- 
lished in Great Britain. The first historical 
notice we have of this fact, is the grant of a 
charter by Queen Elizabeth to a company 
formed for the purpose of supplying slaves to 
the Spanish American colonies; the queen 
herself was a shareholder. Subsequently, in 
A.D. 1662, under Charles XL, a monopoly was 
created in favor of a company authorized to 
export to the colonies three thousand slaves 
per annum ; and so valuable was this privi- 
lege considered, so great was the influence 
required for the purpose of obtaining a share 
in it, that it was placed under the auspices 
of the Queen Dowager and the Duke of York. 
The kin 2!: himself, in order to encourai2:e the 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 79 

traffic in African slaves, issued his proclama- 
tion, offering a bounty of a hundred acres of 
land to his subjects for every four slaves em- 
ployed in the cultivation of it. 

The merchants of London found their trade 
to the slave coast very much cramped by this 
royal monopoly, granted to favorites of the 
Crown, and they loudly complained that they 
were excluded from the advantages of so pros- 
perous a traffic; and in a.d. 1695, in commit- 
tee of the whole, the Commons of England 

Resolved, That for the better supply of the 
plantations, all the subjects of Great Britain 
should have liberty to trade in Africa for 
negroes, with such limits as should be pre- 
scribed by Parliament. 

In the 9th and 10th William III., an act 
was passed partially relaxing this monopoly, 
the preamble to which states — 

That the trade was highly beneficial to the 
kingdom, and to the plantations and colonies 
thereto belonging. 

This partial relaxation w^as unsatisfactory; 
petitions continued to pour in; in 1708, the 
Commons again 

Resolved, That the trade was important, 



80 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

and ought to be free and open to all the 
queen's subjects trading from Great Britain. 

And in 1711, they again resolved that this 
trade ought to be free in a regulated company; 
the plantations ought to be supplied with ne- 
groes at reasonable rates; a considerable stock 
was necessary for carrying on the trade to the 
best advantage, and that an export of <£100,- 
000 at least, in merchandise, should be annu- 
ally made from Great Britain to Africa. 
Finally, in the year a.d. 1749, these repeated 
resolutions of the Commons and petitions of 
the merchants of London accomplished the 
desired result. They gained their object by 
the passage of the act of 23d George II., 
throwing open the trade, and declaring the 
slave-trade to be very advantageous to Great 
Britain, and necessary for supplying the plan- 
tations and colonies thereunto belonging with 
a suflicient numljer of negroes at reasonable 
rates. 

Thus we see, that Great Britain unhesita- 
tingly went into the slave traffic in negroes 
by tlie wholesale; ])uying annually £100,000 
worth of slaves, at prices in Africa, an amount 
nearly equivalent to a half million of dollars; 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 81 

in which all classes were permitted to share 
the profits, from the monarch to the peasant, 
and was considered and so declared to be a very 
lucrative and profitable business, both to the 
government and the stockholders of individuals 
concerned; yet, notwithstanding all this, that 
the stockholders acquired millions by the trade, 
the African, who was sold in servitude, was 
the greatest gainer of all concerned : he was 
taken from a state of heathenish paganism, 
from a state of naked and savage barbarity, 
and placed in a condition where he would 
hear the gospel of Jesus Christ preached, to 
the salvation of his soul, and under a master 
who would restrict him in his criminal prac- 
tices and teach him the morals of the Chris- 
tian religion, clothe him and feed him as a 
rational being, and make him do such work 
as he could and ought to do for his own bene- 
fit and that of the rest of the human race; 
by which means the American slave has risen 
far above the common African in the wilds 
of Africa, in intelligence, morality, and reli- 
gion. 

This legislation of Great Britain fixed the 
institution upon the colonies; they had no 



82 A IIISTOKY AND DEFENSE 

power to resist it; they eould only remon- 
strate and petition, and make attempts to 
legislate at home to diminish the evil, and 
every such attempt was sternly repressed by 
the British Crown. 

In 1760, South Carolina passed an act pro- 
hibiting the further importation of African 
slaves. The act was rejected by the Crown; 
the governor was reprimanded, and a circular 
was sent to all the governors of the colonies, 
warning them against presuming to counte- 
nance such legislation. 

In 1765, a similar bill was twice read in 
the Assembly of Jamaica. The news reached 
Great Britain before its final passage ; instruc- 
tions were sent to the royal governor; he called 
the House of Assembly before him, communi- 
cated his instructions, and forbade any further 
progress of the bill. 

In 1774, in spite of this discountenancing 
the bill by Great Britain, two bills passed the 
Legislature of Jamaica; and the Earl of Dart- 
mouth, then Secretary of State, wrote to Sir 
Basil Krith. the Ciovenior of the colony, that 
these measures had created alarm to the 
merchants of Great Britain engaged in that 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 83 

branch of commerce, and forbidding him, on 
pain of removal from his office, to assent to 
such haws. 

Finally, in 1775, mark the date, after the 
revolutionary struggle had commenced, while 
the Continental Congress was in session, after 
armies had been levied, after Crown Point 
and Ticonderoga had been taken possession 
of by the insurgent colonists, and after the 
first blood had been shed in the Eevolution 
at Lexington, this same Earl of Dartmouth, 
in answer to a remonstrance from an agent 
of the colonies, replied : ^Ye cannot allow the 
colonies to check or discourage in any degree 
a traffic so beneficial to the nation. 

Thus, down to the very commencement of 
the Revolution, which separated Great Britain 
from the thirteen colonies, African slavery 
was forced by her on the colonies, without 
their consent, regardless of their approbation, 
and may, therefore, be considered the com- 
mon law of the land, ingrafted from the 
mother country. 

And, if we will examine the decision of 
her judges, and the answers of her lawyers 
to questions propounded by the Crown and 



84 A HISTORY A^'D DEFENSE 

assembled bodies, ^ye Avill find that slavery is 
recogni/A'd jjy the common law of England, 
and slaves are declared to be merchandise 
and property, and transferable the same as 
any other chattels. 

A short time prior to the year 1713, a con- 
tract had been formed between Spain and a 
certain company called the Eoyal Guinea 
Company, that had been established in 
France. This contract was technically called 
in those days an ass lento. 

By the treaty of Utrecht, of the 11th of 
April, 1713, Great Britain, through her diplo- 
matist, obtained a transfer of that contract — 
she yielded considerations for it — the obtain- 
ing of which was greeted in England with 
great joy; it was considered a triumph of 
diplomacy. It Avas followed, in the month 
of May, 1713, by a new contract in form, by 
which the British government undertook, for 
the term of thirty years then next to come, 
to transport annually 4800 slaves to the 
Spanisli American colonies at a fixed price. 
Almost innnediately after this new contract, 
a question arose in the English council as to 
the true legal character of the slaves thus to 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 85 

be transported to the Spanish American colo- 
nies; and, according to the forms of the Brit- 
ish constitution, the question was submitted 
by the Crown in council to the twelve judges 
of England ; and they answered in the follow- 
ing words, to wit: In pursuance of his Ma- 
jesty's order in council, hereunto annexed, Ave 
do humbly certify our opinion to be, that ne- 
groes are merchandise. 

Signed by Lord Chief Justice Holt, Judge 
PoUextin, and eight other judges of England. 
This was immediately after the treaty of 
Utrecht, in 1713. Yery soon after this, the 
spirit of fanaticism began to obtain a foothold 
in England; and, although large numbers of 
slaves were owned in Great Britain, and were 
daily sold in the pubUc Exchange in London, 
(see 2 Haggard's Keport, page 105,) questions 
arose as to the rights of the owners to retain 
property in their slaves ; and the merchants 
of London, alarmed, submitted the question 
to Sir Philip York, who afterward became 
Lord Hardwick, and to Lord Talbot, who was 
then the Solicitor and Attorney-General of 
the kingdom. The question w^as propounded 
to them: What are the rights of a British 
8* 



86 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

owner of a slave in England? And this is 
the answer of those two legal functionaries. 
They certified that a slave coming from the 
West Indies to England, with or without his 
master, does not become free, and his master's 
property in him is not thereby determined 
nor varied; and his master may legally com- 
pel him to return to the plantation. 

And in A.d. 1749, the same question again 
came up before Sir Philip York, then Lord 
Chancellor of England, under the title of 
Lord Hardwdck, and by a decree in Chan- 
cery in the case before him, he athrmed the 
doctrine which he had uttered when he was 
Attorney- General of Great Britain. 

Such were the decisions of the judges of 
England up to a.d. 1771, when the spirit of 
fanaticism began greatly to prevail, by which 
Lord Mansfield was driven to a different deci- 
sion in the celebrated Sommerset case; by 
which judicial legislation, we may term it, 
subverted the connnon law of England, and 
decided, not that a slave carried to England 
from the West Indies by his nuister thereby 
became free, but that by the law of England, 
if the slave resisted the master, there was no 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 87 

remedy by which the master could exercise 
his control; that the colonial legislation, 
which afforded the master means of control- 
ling his property, had no authority in Eng- 
land; and that England, by her laws, had 
provided no substitute for that authority. 
To this decision Lord Mansfield was driven 
by the spirit of fanaticism; for he had no 
precedent or law on which to base it. On 
the contrary, both law and precedent were 
clearly against the decision ; for he used every 
effort in his power to get the parties to com- 
promise the case, so that he could evade giv- 
ing a decision on the subject; but they would 
not compromise. But this decision of Lord 
Mansfield had but little effect on subsequent 
decisions of the English courts, and only went 
to tarnish his reputation and show his vacil- 
lating disposition. For, as late as a.d. 1827, 
twenty years after Gre^t Britain had abol- 
ished the slave-trade, and six years before 
she confiscated the property of the colony, 
which she forced them to buy, the celebrated 
case of the slave Grace, well known to all law- 
yers, was brought before Lord Stowell, one of 
the most learned and firm judges in all the 



0» A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

kingdom, in which it was decided quite dif- 
ferent; it was contended in argument that the 
slave Grace, having been brought to England 
by her master, was free; that once she was 
free, she was always free. That the Eng« 
lish atmosphere was too pure to be breathed 
b}^ a slave. Lord Stowell, in answering 
that legal argument, said: That after pain- 
ful and laborious research into historical re- 
cords, he did not find anvthin": touchino: the 
peculiar fitness of the English atmosphere for 
respiration, during the ten centuries that 
slaves had lived in England. 

The point was also raised in this case, that 
slavery did not exist by common law usage 
anywhere, but was only the creature of posi- 
tive legislation; and here is what Lord Sto- 
well said on that point in the case, to wit: 
Having adverted to most of the objections 
that arise to the removal of slavery in the 
colonies, I have first to observe that it returns 
upon the slave by the same title by which it 
grew up; originally it never was in antiquia 
a creature of law. Init of that custom which 
operates with the force of law; and Avhen it 
is cried out that mains icsils aholcndus est, it 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 89 

is first to be proven that even in the consider- 
ation of Enghand the use of slavery is con- 
sidered as a inalus iisus in the colonies. Is 
that a malus usus which the court of kings, 
privy council, and the courts of chancery are 
every day carrying into full effect in all con- 
siderations of property; in the one by appeal, 
and in the other by original causes; and all 
this enjoined and confirmed by statutes? 
Still less is it to be considered as a mains 
usus in the colonies themselves, where it has 
been incorporated into full life and establish- 
ment, where it is the system of the State, 
and of every individual in it; and fifty years 
have passed without any authorized condem- 
nation of it in England as a mains usus in 
the colonies. And this was fifty years after 
Lord Mansfield's speech in the Sommerset 
case. 

The fact is, that in England, where villein- 
age of both sorts went into total decay, we 
had communication with no other country, 
and, therefore, it is triumphantly declared, as 
I have before observed, once a freeman, ever 
a freeman; there being no other country 
with which we had immediate connection, 



90 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

which at the tune of suppressing that 
system we had any occasion to trouble our- 
selves about; but slavery was a very great 
source of the mercantile interest of the coun- 
try, and was on that account largely consid- 
ered by the mother country as a great source 
of its wealth and strength. Treaties were 
made on that account, and the colonies com- 
pelled to submit to those treaties by the au- 
thority of this country. This system con- 
tinued entire; instead of being condemned as 
mains usus, it was regarded as a most eminent 
source of its riches and power. It was at a 
late period of the last century that it was 
condemned in England as an institution not 
fit to exist here, for reasons peculiar to our 
own condition ; but it has been continued in 
our colonies, favored and supported by our 
own courts, which have liberally imparted to 
it their protection and encouragement. To 
such a system, while it is supported, I rather 
feel it to be too strong to apply the maxim 
v}((ln-^ u.^Ns aholritdiis est. The time may come 
when this institution may fall, in the colonies, 
as other institutions have done in other flour- 
ishing countries; but I am of opinion it can 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 91 

only be effected at the joint expense of both 
countries; for it is in a peculiar manner the 
crime of this country, and I rather feel it to 
be an objection to this species of emancipa- 
tion; that it is indeed to be a very cheap 
measure, hereby throwing the whole expense 
upon the country. (2 Haggard's Reports, 
page 128, et seq.) 

Such was the opinion of Lord Stowell in 
the celebrated case of the slave Grace. At 
the time of his decision, he v> as in correspond- 
ence with Judge Story, a man of known abil- 
ity and patriotism; and he wrote to Judge 
Story upon the subject of his opinion, who 
was asked to consider it, and give his opinion 
about it; and here is an extract from his an- 
swer, to wit: I have read with great atten- 
tion your judgment in the slave case. Upon 
the fullest consideration which I have been 
able to give the subject, I entirely concur 
in your views; if I had been called upon to 
pronounce a judgment in alike case, I shoaid 
certainly have arrived at the same conclusion. 
That was the opinion of Judge Story, given 
in this case, in a.d. 1827. 

These facts, supported by the decisions of 



92 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

such men as Lord Stowell and Judge Story, 
ought to be sufficient to convince any unpre- 
judiced mind that shavery exists in the Uni- 
ted States by the common law brought from 
England, and existed in all of the English 
colonies in the same way ; and that it existed 
in England by the same usage until very re- 
cently. But, in looking still further, we see 
that it is the common law of the whole con- 
tinent, both North and South America alike. 
The European powers w^hich joined and co- 
operated with Great Britain in the discovery 
and establishing of colonies on this conti- 
nent, all followed the same views of polic}'. 
France, Spain, Portugal, and England occu- 
pied the whole continent north and south; 
tlie legislation of all of them ^vas the same. 
Louis XIIL, by royal edict, established sla- 
very in all his colonies in America; and, 
through the interference of Lascasas, the 
Spanish Crown inaugurated the slave-trade 
with a view of substituting the servile labor 
of the African for that of the Indians, who 
had been reduced to slavery by their Spanish 
conquerors. As regards Portugal, she inau- 
gurated the trade; she originally supplied all 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 93 

the colonies; and the empire of Brazil to-day, 
with its servile labor, is the legitimate fruit 
of the colonial policy of the Portuguese govern- 
ment in the sixteenth century. She began 
her trade in 1508; some authors say even 
before the colonization of America in the 
fifteenth century. 

Slavery was thus the recognized institution, 
both of the Old and New World. White sla- 
very existed in England until comparatively 
a recent date; it did not finally disappear 
until the reign of James II. The system 
of villeinage, of which all the law writers 
speak, was a system of slavery in its strictest 
sense. Villeins Avere all slaves, as much so 
as the negroes now are in America. There 
w^ere two kinds: villeins regardant, and vil- 
leins in gross; and the only difterence be- 
tween them was that the villeins regardant 
w^ere attached to the soil, and could not be 
sold away from the glebe; they followed 
the conveyance of the estate in the hands of 
the lord. But the villeins in gross w^ere 
chattels, sold from hand to hand just as ne- 
groes or cattle, or any other species of prop- 
erty are now sold — a concise account of 



94 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

Avliicli is given in the first volume of the 
celehrated treatise of Mr. Spence on the 
Equity Jurisdiction of the Courts of Chan- 
eery. That vohnne contains an admirable, 
concise history of the English law; some 
statements are contained therein relative to 
the English law of villeinage, as also in Mr. 
Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of 
England. But a true and fair picture of the 
state of villeinage in England is very con- 
cisely portrayed in the celebrated argument 
of Mr. Ilargrave, the great lawyer, who was 
the counsel for the slave in the Sommerset 
case; one passage will gi\e us an idea of 
what the villein was, under the common law 
of England. He said : The condition of the 
villein had most of the incidents which I 
have before described, in giving the idea of 
slavery in general. His service Avas uncer- 
tain and indeterminate, such as his lord saw 
fit to require; or, as some of our ancient 
writers express it, he knew not in the even- 
ing what he was to do in the morning. He 
was Ijound to do whatever he was commanded; 
he was liable to beating, inq^risonment, or any 
other species of chastisement his lord might 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. Vb 

prescribe, except killing and maiming. He 
was incapable of acquiring property for his 
own benefit, the rule being quo quid acquiri- 
tur servo acquiritur domino. He was himself 
the subject of property, as such salable and 
transmissible; if he was a villein regardant, 
he passed with the manor or land to which 
he was annexed, but might be severed at the 
pleasure of the lord. If he was a villein in 
gross, he was a hereditament or a chattel 
real, according to his lord's interest, being de- 
scendable to the heir where the lord was ab- 
solute owner, and transmissible to the execu- 
tor where the lord had only a term of years 
in him. Lastly, the slavery extended to the 
issue; if both parents were villeins, or if the 
father was a villein — our law deriving the 
condition of the child from that of the father, 
contrary to the Eoman law, in Avhich the 
rule was partus sequiter ventrem. 

The origin of villeinage is principally to be 
derived from the wars between the British, 
Saxons, Danish, and Norman ancestors, while 
they were contending for the possession of the 
country. Judge Fitzherbert, in his reading on 
the fourth of Edward I, stat. i., entitled exterda 



96 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

manerti, supposes villeinage to have com- 
menced at the Conquest, by the distribution 
then made of the forfeited lands, and of the 
vanquished inhabitants resident upon them; 
but there were many bondmen in England 
before the Conquest, as appears by the Anglo- 
Saxon laws regulating them; and, therefore, 
it would be nearer the truth to attribute the 
origin of villeins, as well to the preceding 
wars and revolutions in this country, as to 
the effects of this Conquest. (20th Howell's 
State Trials, pp. 36, 37.) 

White slaver}' in England was protected by 
the common law, down to James II., and its 
disappearance was gradual. The monarchs 
themselves held a property in them; and 
when they were liberated, they had to pay 
a full equivalent for their freedom. Queen 
Elizabeth, during her reign, issued a commis- 
sion to Cecil, Lord Burleigh, and Sir William 
Mildmay, giving them authority to go into 
her counties of Gloucester, Cornwall, Devon, 
and Sommerset, and there to manumit her 
slaves, by getting from them a reasonable 
price for their liberty. That is the wny sla- 
very was abolished in England; it was abol- 



or AFRICAN SLAVERY. 97 

ished by the graclaal emancipation of the 
slaves, resulting from the sale of the lord to 
the slave himself of his right over him. 
Here is a copy of the commission, which may 
be found in the Appendix to the 20th volume 
of Howell's State Trials, which reads as fol- 
lows : — 

Elizabeth, by the grace of God, etc., to our 
right trustie and well beloved Councillor, Sir 
W. Cecil, of the Garter, Knighte, Lord Burgh- 
ley, and Highe Treasurer of England, and to 
our trustie and right well beloved Councillor, 
Sir \Yalter Mildmay, Knighte, Chancellor and 
Under Treasurer of our Exchequer, Greet- 
inge: Whereas divers and sundrie of our 
poore, faithful, and loyal subjects, being borne, 
bounde in blode, and regardant to divers and 
sundrie our manors and possessions, wdthin 
our realm of England, have made humble 
suyte unto us to be manumised, enfranchised, 
and made free, with theire children and se- 
quels, by reason whereof, they, theire chil- 
dren, and sequels may become more apt and 
fitte members for the service of us and of 
our commonwealth; we, then, having tender 
9* 



98 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

considerations of theire said siiyte, and well 
considering the same to be acceptable to Al- 
miglitie God. 

Now, we would suppose she was going to 
give them their liberty. Not at all; but, kind 
queen as she is, willing to sell them to them- 
selves at a fair price, like one negro would 
sell a quart of pinders to another, for its full 
value! What merciful kindness! And so 
she goes on : — 

And we do committ and give unto you full 
power and authoritie by these presents to ac- 
cept, admitte, and receive to be manumised, 
enfranchised, and made free, such and so many 
of our bondmen and bond-women in blode, 
with all and every theire children and se- 
quells, theire goodes, landes, tenementes, and 
hereditaments as are now apperteynynge or 
regarduante to all or any of our manors, 
landes, tenementes, possessions or heredita- 
ments within the said several counties of 
Cornwall, Devon, Sommerset, and Gloucester, 
as to }ou, by your discressions shall seme 
mete and convenient. Compoundinge with 
them for such reasonable fmes or sommes of 
money to be taken and received to our use. 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 99 

for manumyssion and enfranchisement; and 
for the possessions and enjoying of all and 
singular theire landes, tenementes, heredita- 
ments, goodes, and chattels, whatsoever as 
you and they can agree, for the same after 
your wisdomes and discressions. 

Here, then, was slavery in its widest and 
broadest acceptation in Great Britain, in the 
time of Elizabeth; and it never finally disap- 
peared from the kingdom until the reign of 
James II. 

In France, they had also a system of white 
slaves of the same kind; there they were 
called gens de maine morte, most main people, 
because they belonged to the estates; and 
they w^ere not liberated until 1779, long after 
black slaves were introduced into the French 
possessions in America. They w^ere enfran- 
chised by a royal edict, commencing in these 
w^ords : — 

We have been greatly affected by the con- 
sideration that a large number of our subjects, 
still attached as slaves to the glebe, are re- 
garded as forming a part of it, as it were; 
that, deprived of the liberty of their persons, 
and of the rights of property, they themselves 



lofC. 



100 A niSTORY AND DEFENSE 

are considered as the property of their lords; 
that they have not the consolation of be- 
queathing of their goods; and that, except 
in a few cases rigorously circumscribed, they 
cannot even transmit to their own children 
the fruits of their own labor. 

Thus fell the last remnant of white slavery 
in France, in 1779; after the independence 
of the United States, and after it was ascer- 
tained that the negro race were much better 
adapted to slavery than the white. 

That slavery of the black population is the 
common law of the land, and is so recog- 
nized, every one of the slaveholding States 
of the thirteen States, at the time of the Dec- 
laration of Independence, who afterwards 
abolished slavery, found it necessary to do 
so by positive statute to that efiect. There 
was no law of the colonies establishing Af- 
rican slavery previous to that date, and it 
therefore existed by the common law of the 
country, brought from the mother countrj^; 
and to abolish it required a direct statute. 

Those States which abolished slavery did 
not do so all of a sudden, but gradually; giv- 
ing time in all cases for the owners to send 



OF AFRICAX SLAVERY. 101 

them to the Southern slaveholding States, 
to sell them for a fair price, which they did 
by thousands, pocketed the money, returned 
home with the proceeds, and then raised a 
great hue and cry, that African slavery in 
the United States was abominable! What 
very sympathetic philanthropists these North- 
ern negro-speculators are ! — they would sell 
their o;randniother for monev to the Southern 
planter, then weep over the evils of slavery! 
The States which liberated their slaves were 
not the losers; their citizens sent off their 
slaves, and sold them in the Southern States, 
where they are now faring much better than 
many of their former owners are in the free 
States: better fed, better clothed, and better 
satisfied wath their condition. 

The Constitution of the United States re- 
cognizes African slavery, and guarantees a 
protection to the owners of the same, in every 
part of the nation. The free States are bound 
by that instrument to protect the slaveholder 
in the possession and enjoyment of his slave- 
property; and whenever they fail to do it, 
they violate that sacred instrument, which 
binds the States toorether as a band of broth- 



102 A IirSTORY AND DEFENSE 

ers; which makes them formidable and re- 
spected, both at home and abroad. In addi- 
tion to the express recital in the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, guaranteeing to 
the owner of slaves protection to their prop- 
erty in every State in the Union, in order to 
dispel all doubt on the subject, the Supreme 
Court of the United States, the highest judi- 
cial tribunal in the world, has clearly decided 
the question, in the celebrated Dred Scott 
case, which was commenced before the United 
vStates District Court in the State of Missouri, 
in November, 1853, and carried up by writ 
of error to the Supreme Court of the nation, 
where it was decided by the Supreme Court : 
That negroes were slaves in the United States, 
and the property still continued in the owner, 
whether in a free State or a slaveholding 
State; and that the slave Dred Scott was 
not entitled to his freedom ; that slaves were 
not citizens of the United States, but prop- 
erty, which vested in their owners. 

The opinion of the Supreme Court Avas de- 
livered by Chief Justice Taney, one of tlie 
greatest jurists, and most upright and impar- 
tial judges the world has ever known. 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 103 

With all these facts before us, then, it is 
evident, beyond all doubt, that African sla- 
very in the United States is the common law 
of the land ; that it exists without any legis- 
lative statute to support it ; and that when- 
ever the United States acquired any new 
territory, the slaveholder had an undoubted 
right to take his slave-property to it, as he 
had any other kind; and it is the bounden 
duty of the Government of the United States, 
and every State in the Union, whether slave- 
holding or not, to protect him in the enjoy- 
ment of his property. They have agreed to 
do so in their compact : the Constitution under 
w^hich they exist as one great and formidable 
government requires it; the interest of all 
demands it; and every just man and patriot, 
and obeying man, who has any love for his 
country, or any desire for the perpetuity of 
the union of the States, or any regard or feel- 
ing for the negroes themselves, or any feeling 
of humanity for his own race, should desire 
it. All should unite in the mutual protection 
of each other, and of each other's rights, in 
any and every species of property whatever. 
If they will do this, and let every State make 



104 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

her own regulation about her shave-jjroperty, 
as Avell as all other species of goods and chat- 
tels, and never permit the subject ever once 
to be agitated before the Congress of the na- 
tion, this great republic will very soon be the 
Eden of the earth ; its influence will extend to 
the remotest parts of the world ; and, in point 
of strength and population, will be equal to 
all the world besides. As Mr. Webster ob- 
served, a fevr years ago, in Congress: That 
the child was now^ born who would live to 
see our nation possessed of one hundred mil- 
lions of inhabitants, if our States would only 
remain united. Then, what it would be in 
the course of three centuries to come, we can 
scarcely calculate. We may safely suggest, 
that it would amount to more than a million 
of millions of people; that the whole con- 
tinent of North America and South America, 
with every island wdthin its range, will be- 
long to this great republic, every one in their 
proper place, for which they were designed — 
the whites all free, and the negroes all 
slaves; each contributing, according to his 
capacity, largely for the benefit of the whole. 
A powerful republic, governed by the free- 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 105 

men of the land^ with no king but God, our 
creator and preserver, who rules directly, and 
governs all according to his own good plea- 
sure; to whom be all the glory, power, and 
honor, now and forever more. 

What would be said of the Southern people 
in the slaveholding States, if they should take 
their horses to the free States and sell them, 
and they should run away and return, and 
the owners should come after their property, 
and the j)eople of the slaveholding States 
should say to them. You shall not take your 
property back; they have crossed the line, 
and got into our State, and you shall not 
take them away ? They would be looked upon 
as thieves and robbers, and every act of the 
kind would loosen the bands which bind 
them together, and their union could last 
but a little while; instead of safety and pro- 
tection from the union, it would only amount 
to robbery and fraud. So, the principle is 
just the same, if a slaveholder's slave runs 
away, and goes into a free State, and the 
citizens of the free State refuse to give him 
up to his owner; it is depriving the owner of 
his slave, and defrauding him of his property, 
10 



106 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

and converting tlie union of the States into 
fraud and oppression, instead of safety and 
protection. 

AYe say to the people of the free-soil States, 
You are our brothers; we constitute one great 
national family ; we all have conceded certain 
rights to the general government for the pro- 
tection and benefit of the whole; and other 
certain rights we have reserved to ourselves; 
among which reserved rights is the regulation 
of the subject of African slavery within our 
own borders. We are well convinced that in 
union there is strength; for Jesus Christ the 
great Saviour of mankind, has taught us this 
lesson, which is handed down to us in the 
Holy Bible, wherein he says that a house di- 
vided against itself cannot stand; that a na- 
tion divided against itself cannot stand; and 

even that if Satan is divided in his kingdom 

I— 

that cannot stand. 

That we wish to carry out our contract, as 
expressed in the Constitution of the United 
States, in its ."strictest sense; that Ave will give 
you permission to bring your property among 
us, let it be of what kind it may; that we 
will take up arms to fight against any nation 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 107 

on the earth who will dare to rob you of 
your property, either on the land or on the 
seas; that whenever the United States ac- 
quires any new territory, it shall be the com- 
mon property of us all; and w^e w^ill all take 
our property there, if we choose, wdiether it be 
slaves, dry goods, horses, cattle, or any other 
kind; and w^e will mutually join in the pro- 
tection of each other, in the possession of that 
property; and when we see each other's prop- 
erty going astray, we will go according to the 
doctrines of the Bible : we will take it up and 
return it to our neighbor, to whom it of right 
belongs; that w^e will protect you in your 
rights, and in return you must protect us in 
our rights; there shall be no sectional divi- 
sions among us; there shall be no Northern, 
Southern, Eastern, or Western line of divi- 
sion among us; but w^e will all be as citizens 
of one great nation, and the interest of one 
of us shall be the interest of us all. When 
your property goes astray, and comes among 
us, we will not only deliver it up to you, 
when you come after it, but we will turn out 
en masse, and help you hunt it up; and you 
shall be assisted in obtaining it again; and 



108 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

if any man shall steal your property, and 
bring it among us, we will use every means 
in our power to ferret him out, and aid 
in delivering up to you both your property 
and the thief who stole it. Our land shall 
not be polluted as being the hiding place for 
thieves and stolen property. It shall be no 
place of refuge for any such. 

And you in return must aid us in the same 
way : if our negroes run away and go among 
you, catch them, and return them to their 
proper owner. If any person should steal 
them, and carry them away, you use every 
exertion in your power to return the slave to 
his master, and deliver up the thief to be 
punished; and in this manner, a brotherly 
feeling will spring up among us, which will 
defy all the nations of the earth to sever us. 
We shall very soon hear nothing more of any 
slave running away from his master, to make 
his way to a free State, or of any man steal- 
ing slaves for any such purpose. Conten- 
tion and disputes will soon cease among us; 
and instead of fighting against each other, 
and striving to injure one another, we shall 
all be striving to promote each other's wel- 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 109 

fare; and in doing that, promote our own. 
And if at any time any of you should so de- 
sire it, and wish to set any of our negroes 
free, as a matter of kindness on your part, 
just bring us the money, a fair valuation for 
the slave, and the owner will sell them to 
you at a fair price, and permit you to take 
them to a free State, and settle them there, 
if you like it; but we cannot permit free 
negroes to settle in among us; it would be 
unsafe and contrary to our policy, and calcu- 
lated to breed disaffection and insurrection 
among our slaves. But if you will pay us 
the cash for them, you shall be at liberty to 
take them home with you, or send them 
where you please, where their influence will 
not tarnish the rest of our slaves; and by 
pursuing a policy of this kind, our nation 
will be bound to grow and flourish above 
every other on the earth, until it shall 
govern every other by its influence. It will 
not be necessary for us to take up arms to 
acquire territory; one by one, will every 
other government of the New World apply 
to our government for admittance, and beg to 
be received as a member of the Confederacy, 
10* 



110 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

until the whole contment shall become one 
great republic by special favor, most gra- 
ciously granted, instead of compulsion by the 
sword; for it is such, and only such as would 
be anxious to be admitted, who would make 
worthy members of a great and growing re- 
public like ours. 

We have no use for friends and connections 
that we have to make such at the point of 
the bayonet ; such do not possess the neces- 
sary cement to unite them to us in the ca- 
pacity in which we ought to live; we want 
such as come willingly and anxiously, not so 
much for our benefit as for their own welfare 
and particular good. Such as come willingly 
are only such as are qualified to form sister 
States with us; on whom we can in safety rely 
in peace and in war. Our happy condition as a 
nation will be observed; and when other na- 
tions are broken up and destroyed by intes- 
tine wars, and trampled under foot by their 
powerful neighbors ; when individual life, 
property, and liberty are continually in dan- 
ger, and exposed to destruction in other coun- 
tries, it will only be to become a member of 
this great republic to be safe, (juiet, and pro- 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. Ill 

tected; and other nations will, one by one, 
seek that refuge, by being united to our gov- 
ernment, which they nowhere else can find. 

Now, in A.D. 1860, the government of the 
United States is composed of thirty-four 
States, many of them larger than some of 
the kingdoms of Europe, and has, besides, 
territory sufficient to form some twenty more 
States, either of which, except the State of 
Delaware, is more powerful than any other 
government on the whole continent of North 
and South America, except Mexico, which 
no doubt will shortly be ingrafted into our 
Union, if we are willing to receive her; and 
a population of about thirty millions, rapidly 
increasing. It has increased since 1776, the 
date of the Declaration of Independence, 
from three millions of inhabitants, up to the 
present population of about thirty millions, 
and is now increasing much faster than ever. 
It is in this happy republic that all free-born 
white men are equal, and the poorest peasant 
has a chance, according to his merit, to rise to 
eminence, and fill the highest position in the 
country, equal with him who floats in wealth 
and splendor. It is in this republic that the 



112 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

power of steam was discovered by Eobert 
Fuiton, an American mechanic, not sixty 
years ago, Avliicli is now doing so much to 
enrich and civilize the world. It was in this 
republic that the existence of electricity was 
discovered by Dr. Benjamin Franklin, an 
American citizen, a discovery which is now 
astonishing the world, and conveying news 
on the lightning's wing from one State to 
another, a distance of thousands of miles in a 
few seconds. Though yet in its infancy, the 
world has never seen the day before, when any 
government has ever grown and prospered as 
has done the United States of North America, 
or a generation in which the arts and sciences 
have flourished as much as the present; or a 
nation whose arms were attended with more 
success in battling against their enemies; — all 
goes clearlj^ to show that God, who rules the 
universe and guides the distinguished men 
and nations, has planted our government, di- 
rected its institutions, nurtured it with his 
hands, and governed its armies in battle. 
Just look at the character of WashinGr- 

o 

ton, that great American general, who com- 
manded the American army in the days 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 113 

of the Revolution — a character pure and 
unspotted, the envy of kings, a noted land- 
mark, a disposition which seems to be differ- 
ent from that of any other man, a devoted 
follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, and a large 
African slaveholder ; a man who, having liber- 
ated his country, resigned its crown, and we 
will see at once that he was a special charac- 
ter, created and placed in the situation he 
was destined to occupy for the purpose of 
achieving a certain object: his chief aim was 
the good of his country. Look again at the 
great military chieftains, whose reputation has 
shined as stars in the heaven, who succeeded 
him : Andrew Jackson, Zachary Taylor, John 
A. Quitman, Winiield Scott, and Sam Hous- 
ton ; great generals, wise statesmen, and pure 
patriots, all large African slaveholders; men 
in whose hands we might at any time risk 
the reins of our government in safety, guided 
and directed by the great Creator of the uni- 
verse. Their characters stand as monuments 
of military greatness, bestowed upon the peo- 
ple of this nation for their protection. And 
also in the councils of our nation; look at 
the gigantic intellect of Henry Clay, Daniel 



114 A HISTORY AXD DEFENSE 

Webster, John C. Calhoun, James Buchanan, 
William Henry Harrison, Thomas Jefferson, 
and James Monroe, and the many other able 
statesmen who figured not long since in the 
councils of our nation, most of whom are 
now laid low in the silent tomb; and the 
world has never before seen the day, when 
any nation could present such an array of 
talent within her councils. And thej^, suc- 
ceeded by the present able statesmen, who 
have been raised up to fill their places; among 
whom are Albert G. Brown, Jefferson Davis, 
and 0. R. Singleton, of Mississippi; Mr. Ben- 
jamin, of Louisiana, and many others whose 
talents shine resplendent from every State in 
the Union, and show forth to all mankind 
that ours is a land of intellect, virtue, and 
patriotism, and also the land of religion and 
civilization. 

Who is there that cannot admire such a 
country? Who cannot admire its institu- 
tions? Here is a country with already thirty- 
four States in the Union, each larger than 
many of the kingdoms in Europe; territory 
enough to make twenty more, fourteen of 
which own African slaves, who add greatly 



or AFRICAN SLAVERY. 115 

to the strength and support of the whole; 
transporting annually three and a half mil- 
lions of cotton bales to other countries, by 
means of slave labor; a country in which 
the African is more safe and comfortable, 
better provided for, more civilized, and more 
happy, than they are in any other nation; 
with about thirty millions of inhabitants as 
free as the air they breathe; with no other 
restriction than that wdiich is for their ow^n 
benefit and w^elfare; w^ith a government 
framed and managed by themselves; with a 
revenue, by w\ay of duties, of eighty millions 
of dollars, and a country whose one year's 
income of revenue could pay the whole na- 
tional debt; whose flag floats on every sea 
on the globe; whose citizens are honored and 
respected among all nations; whose very name 
of being an American citizen is a sufficient 
protection against imposition; wdiose citizens 
are protected in the enjoyment of their lives, 
their liberty, and their property, at home and 
abroad; wdiere all have the high privilege of 
hearing the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ 
preached, and the privilege of w^orshiping 
God according to the dictates of their own 



116 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

conscience, without money and without price; 
and there is none to make them afraid. 

And as remarkable as it may seem to many, 
there is not an individual in the whole nation 
who pays even one cent of taxes to support 
and keep up this great government under 
which they live, and by wdiich they are thus 
protected. It is kept up and supported by 
means of the revenue on imported articles 
taken in exchange for our exports, which are 
the proceeds of African slave labor. Three 
and a half million of cotton bales — the pro- 
duct of slave labor — are annually shipped to 
other countries and exchanged for other arti- 
cles which are brought to the United States in 
return, on which a duty is paid sufficient to 
defray all of the expenses of the country, 
without resorting to any direct taxation. The 
only direct taxes which are paid are paid to 
keep up the State governments, and the county 
taxes. There are no direct taxes to keep up 
the great government of the United States; 
she supplies herself with her own resources. 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 117 



CHAPTER YIL 

The Probable Result of African Slavery. 

When we examine into the situation of 
Africa, and view its position and the condi- 
tion of its inhabitants, their pecuUar color, 
hair, formation, intellect, and disposition, we 
are bound to come to this conclusion, that the 
kinky-headed African negro is different, in 
many respects, from the white race, and far 
inferior, in point of intellect and sound rea- 
son, physically. They seem incapable of 
thriving under a republican form of govern- 
ment, and therefore, as a matter of necessity, 
these people will always, perhaps, live under 
a despotism. Africa, with her wide-spread 
territory, can never, under negro rule, be 
brought under one great government, so as to 
be governed by one set of laws, under one 
government, throughout the whole; for the 
very reason, that the negro is too contracted 
11 



118 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

ill his nature for any such a system of govern- 
ment. We had as well suppose that a herd 
of wild monkeys would frame a system of 
laws, by which a whole nation would be regu- 
larly governed, as to suppose such a thing 
from the kinky-headed negro. 

The consequence is, then, that Africa, an 
extensive country, abounding in lakes, fine 
rivers, seas, and beautiful harbors, is cut up 
and divided into at least one hundred or more 
different little petty kingdoms or despotisms, 
among which are the Dahomies, the Barba- 
ries, the Nuffies, the Benins, the Yaouries, the 
Anzooans, the Ijibuses, the Eboes, and many 
others too numerous to be here inserted, in 
the which the voice of the king is their law, 
and he rules with an iron sway his humble 
subjects, as far as his jurisdiction extends; 
and not unfrequentlj^, when they are visited 
by a white man, they have a great many 
of their poor subjects butchered like hogs, in 
order to show their power and authority. And 
some of their kings have heralds continually 
standing beside them, prochiiming aloud, from 
the rising of the monarch in the morning un- 
til he lays down to sleep at night, that this is 
the greatest king alive ! 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 119 

Thus it is, that intestine wars must, of 
course, continually rage between these little 
petty princes, until eventually Great Britain, 
France, or some other civilized nation, will 
interfere, and conquer the whole country. 
Place white men to rule over them, convert 
their country into plantations, and put them 
to work as slaves, and make them keep order 
and be at peace with each other ; and all na- 
tions, finding that they make good slaves, and 
are by no means revolutionary in their charac- 
ter, will become slaveholders, and the kinky- 
headed African will be bought and sold like 
cattle, in every civilized nation of the earth, 
as slaves to the descendants of Shem and 
Japheth. 



120 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 



CHAPTER YIII. 

How to make African Slavery Profitable. — Treatment of Slaves. 
— Their Houses.— Their Clothing.— Their Food. 

I COME now to consider the important part, 
of the manner of making slavery profitable 
to the owners. The African slave is, in many 
respects, very different from any other species 
of property to the slave owner. In addition 
to their being propertj^, they are also human 
beings ; and, as such, are entitled to certain 
privileges and rights under the laws of the 
country and humanity, which ought to be 
taken into consideration. I differ with Doctor 
Nott, an able physician, who has written a 
treatise on the physical construction of the 
African. I believe it is his opinion that the 
negro has no soul; but I think the Doctor is 
mistaken. Although tlieir soul may be very 
small, in comparison to tliat of the wliite man, 
yet I believe they have a soul of some sort. 
Although I have seen horses and dogs which 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 121 

seemed to possess as much understanding as 
the common African negro, yet the negro 
seemed to possess the best talent of construc- 
tion ; and, therefore, I consider them superior 
to the brute creation. Then it becomes the 
owner of such people, in the government and 
management of their slaves, to regard them 
in the light of human beings as well as prop- 
erty, ever bearing in mind that they are hu- 
man beings as ourselves, possessed of an im- 
mortal soul, which must eventually be saved 
through the intervention of Jesus Christ, our 
Lord and Saviour, or lost forever. And though 
slaves, they have been placed under the care 
and protection of their masters by the decrees 
of the Almighty Kuler of the universe, to 
w^hom the owner will eventually have to an- 
swer for his stewardship over all which is here 
placed in his charge. 

The number of slaves owned in the slave- 
holding States by each individual slave- 
holder, varies from one slave up to fifteen 
hundred. There are not very many who just 
own one slave ; for, in such cases, the slave is 
certain to become so unhappy and discon- 
tented — it makes no difference how well he 
11* 



122 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

may be treated — that his master is obliged to 
sell him, and let him have a master who owns 
more, w^iere he is certain to be well satisfied, 
if his new master owns over ten, regardless 
of ill-treatment, hard work, and bad food. In 
like manner there are but very few slave- 
holders among the many in the United States 
w^ho own as many as fifteen hundred or a 
thousand, owing to the high prices of such 
property. For a man to own one hundred, is 
called quite a rich man, — the price of slaves 
varying, for full-grown slaves, from eight hun- 
dred to fifteen hundred dollars each, for com- 
mon field hands; and as a man who owns slaves 
must own other property in proportion, any 
man who owns one hundred slaves, take them 
large and small, may be said to be worth one 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars, or on an 
average of one thousand and five hundred dol- 
lars for every slave he owns. It is very rarely 
the case that, among the many slaveholders 
in the United States, one can be found who 
owns a thousand, although I have heard of 
three brotliers v/ho owned about three thou- 
sand each — the three llar^tons ; one of them 
lived in the State of Mississippi, and the other 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 123 

two in Yirginia. A man wlio owns from one 
to two hundred, is termed a very rich slave- 
holder. But there are a great number who 
own from ten to thirty; and these are termed 
slaveholders in good circumstances, and who, 
by using proper industry and economy, can 
live as well, and have every luxury of life 
about them to feast upon, and be far more 
contented than those who own such very large 
numbers. But in either case the slaveholder 
is not to be envied ; he has his hands full to 
attend to his slaves, and if he does his duty, 
he is himself about the greatest slave among 
them ; for on him devolve the care and pro- 
tection of ail the rest, and he is continually 
kept busy looking after them, seeing that they 
are properly fed and clothed, and kept in or- 
der, and properly provided with bedding and 
comfortable houses, and other necessaries 
needed, and having them properly taken care 
of when sick, supplied with wholesome food 
and good nurses. 

The system of government of a lot of slaves 
must differ in some respects, according to the 
number owned. Where a man only owns few, 
say from ten to twenty, he can see to them 



124: A HISTORY AXD DEFENSE 

himself, and very readily perceive what is 
necessary to be done or supplied, or readily 
correct any evil practice among them, where 
he can be on his farm himself to attend in 
person to them. But where he cannot re- 
main on his farm to attend in person, or where 
he owns a great many slaves, and has to place 
them on different plantations, which is almost 
invariably the case with those who own over 
a hundred, they have to trust the manage- 
ment of them to overseers or agents, and, in 
many instances, the owner of the slaves does 
not go among them, or on the plantation, once 
in six months. A great deal, then, depends 
on the honesty and fidelity of the agent or 
overseer. And there are but very few, in 
proportion to number, of this class of men 
who can be relied on as being strictly honest, 
true, and faithful ; and whenever a wealthy 
planter can happen to find such, I would ad- 
vise him to keep him as long as he can, 
although he has to })ay him high wages for 
his service ; for, of all other occupations 
among men in the slaveholding States, that 
of a good overseer among negroes pays best 
among a large number of hands. For, in many 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 125 

caseSj the overseer is an unprincipled wretch, 
who cares nothing for the interest of his em- 
ployer, and has no feeling of humanity for 
the slave, and has not been able to manage 
his own affairs, with no one to work but him- 
self. He applies for the berth of an overseer 
to a gentleman, to oversee some fifteen or 
twenty negroes or more ; when placed on a 
farm to himself to manage alone, he imme- 
diately commences all kinds of debauchery 
among the negro women; he knows nothing 
about management, throws the place into 
confusion, neglects his business, and some- 
times unites with a company of thieves and 
steals his employer's negroes and horses, and 
ships them off by other rogues ; and with a 
farm on the best land in the country, with 
twenty hands to work with, every conveni- 
ence at hand, instead of gaining some three 
or four thousand dollars annually for his em- 
ployer, at the end of the year he has not 
cleared expenses by two thousand dollars; 
and everything on the place is in disorder 
and confusion ; and should his employer hap- 
pen to discharge him a month or two before 
his time is out, in order to keep from being 



126 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

ruined, he thinks it is a very hard case to be 
cut out of a month or two months' wages, 
although he has, in reality, made nothing for 
his emploj^er, and run him to great expense. 

Therefore, it is highly important for the 
slaveholder, when he leaves his property in 
the hands of an overseer, to select some man 
of known reputation and ability as such, to 
take charge of it; and even then, the oftener 
the owner can visit his farm, and see how 
things are managed, the better it will be for 
him; for the frequent presence of the owner 
will show to the overseer that he feels a deep 
interest in the farm, and the slightest neglect 
will be discovered; and this will add a spur 
to his energy, and make him more careful. 
Good steel will sometimes get dull, and need 
whetting. And should the slaveholder dis- 
cover that he has been deceived in his over- 
seer — that he either lacks capacity or princi- 
ple — he ought, unhesitatingly, to discharge 
him at once; for, if he keeps him, his over- 
seer will ruin him. 

Farming and managing of negroes is a 
science ; to become perfect in it requires prac- 
tice and experience, and unless an overseer 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 127 

has some practice and experience, he certainly 
is not qualified to take charge of a fjirm, with 
a number of hands to work it : he ought first 
to serve an apprenticeship under some one 
who is qualified. Such might make a good 
driver, or under-overseer, on a farm where 
the owner was present, or a principal overseer 
to manage and direct the business ; but would 
never answer as the principal superintendent 
in the absence of the owner. What lawyer 
is there who would trust a young stripling to 
manage a case in court of much importance, 
in which he was concerned, immediately after 
he was admitted ? or what doctor is there who 
would trust his life, in a critical case of sick- 
ness, to the management of a young physician 
as soon as he had obtained his license ? I 
can readily answer, none. They will do to 
ruin novices : so wdth green overseers. A 
man wdio is truly an overseer himself, will 
never trust his farm in the hands of a green 
overseer ; he will let such go to ruin novices, 
such as do not know the difference. 

But want of principle is even more import- 
ant than lack of qualification. If your over- 
seer should ever once betray you, or grossly 



128 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

deceive you, trust liini no further; he will 
continually do so as long as you keep him, 
and the quicker you get rid of him the better. 
If he is a rascal, it is vain for you to try to 
make an honest man of him ; it will come as 
natural for him to deceive you, as it is for a 
wolf to catch a sheep : he w^ill promise to do 
so no more, and the very first opportunity he 
has, he will do the same thing over again, ac- 
cording to his nature. 

I would not advise the discharging of an 
overseer for every little vice or error, if he 
would suit otherwise ; for, of course, we must 
make the necessary allowance for the frailties 
of human nature, and put up with some faults 
and failings, wdiere they do not amount to 
anything very injurious; but in the case of 
palpable want of qualification, or wailful de- 
ception, set them adrift Avithout ceremony : it 
is much better to have no overseer, than to 
have one who w^ould ruin vou, and breed dis- 
afiection among your negroes. 

It is not harsh treatment, or nmcli whip- 
ping among negroes, which causes them to 
behave themselves, or do the most work; on 
the contrary, a good overseer is always kind 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 129 

to the slaves, and seldom or never has to whip 
one. By his good management, every one 
knows the particular duty which he has to 
perform, knows what to do in the morning, 
having his particular work allotted to him the 
evening before, and everything moves on in 
order and decorum. I want no better evidence 
of a bad overseer and a mean manager, than 
to see him always whipping the negroes. It 
is the best evidence in the world that he does 
not know how to manage, and that he is pun- 
ishing the negroes because they did not know 
wdiat to do, because he himself did not know 
what to tell them to do, and he whips the 
negroes for his own faults ; when, if he had 
given them the proper instructions about their 
business, as a good overseer would have done, 
the negroes would have gone to work without 
any noise or difficulty. It is only the wagon 
which is out of order, and without grease, 
that makes the creaking noise ; the one which 
is well oiled, and in fine order, moves grace^ 
fully and smoothly along, without noise or 
disturbance. 

Slave property, like everything else, the 
better it is treated, and the better it is at- 
12 



130 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

tended to, the better it will prosper, and the 
more profit it will yield to the owners. There- 
fore, in addition to the imperative duty of the 
slaveholder, it is good economy, and more 
profitable, for him to feed his negroes and 
clothe them well, according to the season of 
the year; the clothing should be cotton for 
the summer, and woolen for the winter; and 
also to provide them with good, comfortable 
houses and bed-clothing, and make them take 
care of what he gives them. 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 131 



CHAPTER IX. 

How to Construct their Houses. 

As it is always better for the slaves not to 
be too much crowded, and in such a state they 
will be more cleanly and prosperous put off in 
families than they would to be crowded, the 
first thing to be done, when a man gets a fam- 
ily of slaves, or where one of his negro women 
takes a husband, is to prepare a suitable house 
for them, and place them to themselves as a 
separate family, and suffer no other negro on 
the farm to intrude upon them. Let the man 
consider it as his house and his premises, and 
say to him. If any other negro comes in your 
house who you do not want there, order him 
out, and if he will not go, inform your master 
of it, or the overseer, and he will make him 
go. In this way they have a better opportu- 
nity of taking care of their goods, and of be- 
ing more neat and cleanly than they other- 



132 A UrSTORY AND DEFENSE 

wise would be. Besides, the women are not 
so apt to prove inconstant to their husbands 
as they otherwise would be, and much fight- 
ing and contention among the men are avoid- 
ed. A nec^ro woman who, otherwise, would 
be lewd and breed contention, where the fam- 
ily were crowded in a room with others, 
situated to themselves would be tolerably vir- 
tuous, and therefore much disturbance avoid- 
ed ; and they will be much better satisfied, 
produce more children, and take better care 
of them. And never more than one family 
ought to be permitted to occupy the same 
house. 

Then, in order to make the house comfort- 
able, I would advise a cabin to be built about 
fifteen feet wide, with two rooms ; one for 
their sleeping-room, the other for their cook- 
ing-room, and to hold their provisions and 
loose plunder ; with a chimney, made of brick 
or stone, in the center, with two fire-places, 
one for each room. The sleeping-room should 
be about fifteen feet square ; the cooking-room 
fifteen feet one way, and about ten feet the 
other. This may be efiected by making a 
room twenty-five feet one way, and fifteen the 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 133 

other, and running a partition tlirougli tlae 
building, cutting off ten feet at one end, vaiich 
would make the two rooms. The floor should 
be tongued and grooved, so as to be perfectly 
air-tight ; and there should be one window to 
each room, about three by four feet; and the 
walls of the house should be made air-tight, 
or nearly so. If the house is built of logs, it 
ought to be chinked and daubed well with 
clay, so as to keep out the cold winter winds ; 
if a framed building, the weather-boarding 
will make it tight enough; and it is best to 
have the door on the south side, so situated 
that the north winds will not blow in on them 
when the door is opened. The house should 
be about nine feet high in the story, and cov- 
ered over with good boards or shingles, so that 
it will not leak a drop ; and there should be 
a number of wooden pins placed in the house 
about in different places in the wall, about as 
high up as the slaves can conveniently reach, 
for the purpose of hanging their clothes and 
other articles on. 

It is sometimes the case that the negro will 
come in from work wet, and sit down by the 
12^^ 



134 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

fire and go to sleep; and if they have an 
open house in the winter, he wakes up. finds 
the north Avind is pouring in on him, and his 
fire has gone out, and he has no more wood 
to make another; hence he sickens with 
cold or pleurisies, and dies, all for the want 
of a comfortable house; when, if his house 
w\as close and comfortable, if his fire did go 
out, he would be in a close, comfortable room, 
wdiere he could sleep all night without freez- 
ing or feeling uncomfortably cold. Thus the 
life of a negro, w^orth one thousand dollars, 
may be saved, frequently, to the ow^ner, by 
building a comfortable cabin, which would not 
cost fifty dollars. 

It is best to build the houses in rows, and 
have them not very fiir apart; but, at the 
same time, put them off" a sufficient distance 
from each other so that, in case one should 
take fire, it will not burn up any of the rest ; 
say about fifty yards apart. It is best not to 
have them too far from each other, for the 
reason that they would be more apt to harbor 
runaways, unbeknown to each other, and not 
so easily managed; but just of sufficient, con- 
venient distance from each other to be safe 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 135 

from catching fire from each other. As it is 
the case sometimes, in spite of all the caution 
that can be used, fire will break out; and 
then, if the houses are within catching dis- 
tance, they may all burn up. 



136 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 



CHAPTER X. 

Mode of Clothing the Slaves. 

Haying treated of the mode of building 
negro-houses for their comfort and support, I 
come next in order to treat of the mode of 
clothing the negro, which is an important 
item, in order to make the slave profitable 
and thrifty; and of all other property owned 
in the United States or elsewhere, good atten- 
tion to slaves will pay a better profit to the 
owner than any other species of property; 
for it is as easy to attend to the comfort of 
a slave, worth fifteen hundred dollars, as it 
is to a horse worth fifty dollars, and more so; 
and if we will only look around us, and sur- 
vey nature as far as our feeble observation 
extends, we will find that nothing will prosper 
without attention, and the better anything is 
cultivated or attended to, the more it will 
thrive, the better it will appear, and the 
more service it will render the owner. There- 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 137 

fore, let an owner of slaves be ever so penuri- 
ous, or destitute of feelings of humanity, if he 
is a man of sense, he will treat his slaves 
kindly, and clothe them well, for his own in- 
terest, for it is to his interest decidedly to do 
so; but apart from all this, every slaveholder 
has a double obligation resting on him, to in- 
duce him to clothe and feed his slaves well: 
first is the duty he owes to his God, w^ho has 
placed him in charge of his slaves, to w^hom 
he will have eventually to account for his 
stewardship here, and to himself, to provide 
for his own welfare, in taking care of his 
property and rendering it profitable; and the 
next, is his duty toward the slave as a hu- 
man being, over whom he has control, and 
who continually looks to his owner for pro- 
tection and support. 

In the first place, the owner has the com- 
plete control of his slave, and of all his earn- 
ings; the slave is entirely deprived of any 
means of furnishing either food or clothing 
for himself; the owner has all of the profits 
arising from the slave's labor, let it be much 
or small, and has the direction of the slave 
in what he shall do; and of all people on 



138 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

earth, the shive is kept the most reguhar at 
work. When his owner says coDie, he has to 
come; when he says go, he has to go; and 
their food and their clothing is all they get 
for their services; therefore, by every princi- 
ple of justice, humanity, and religion, it is the 
duty of the owner of the slave to feed and 
clothe his slaves well; to give them good, 
strong clothing, suitable to the season and 
the work they have to perform, and good, 
wholesome food. 

In the next place, if the owner of slaves 
should lose a slave for the want of a blanket 
to keep him warm at night, or for the want 
of a good, strong suit of woolen clothes in 
the winter, which would not cost ten dollars, 
he would, perhaps, sutler a pecuniary loss of 
a thousand dollars in the death of the slave, 
because he was too stingy to spend ten dol- 
lars for clothes to keep him alive. In this 
way stingy men keep themselves poor, by 
their own meanness, through an erroneous 
idea of true economy, while those who are 
more liberal grow ricli by making the proper 
appropriation for the comfort and support of 
their slaves. One loses a thousand dollars' 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 139 

worth of slave-property, trying to cheat his 
shave out of the vahie of a suit of clothes not 
worth ten dollars; and the other man saves 
a thousand dollars for a suit of clothes to 
make his slave comfortable. Then, the next 
question which arises is, how shall we clothe 
them, how much shall we give them, and at 
what season of the year, and with what kind 
of clothing? 

Negroes who labor should be furnished 
with at least three or four strong suits of 
new clothes each, every year, and two strong, 
new pair of shoes. They should have at 
least two summer suits of cotton, and one or 
two woolen suits for winter; one cotton suit 
should be given to them the first of April, 
the next summer suit given to them the first 
of August ; and their winter suits the first of 
December. They should have a pair of shoes 
given the first of October, and a pair the first 
of January; and before they are given to 
them, have the leather well saturated with a 
mixture of beeswax, rosin, and tallow, about 
equal parts of each ; this will make the leather 
last twice as long as it would without it; and 
if applied to leather of any kind, will add 



140 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

greatly to its durability. The clothes should 
be given to them at different periods in this 
way; for, if they were all given to them at 
once, they being naturally careless, Avould 
not take care of them, and would let 
them lay out and rot; but, by giving them 
the clothes as they need them, if any are 
left to be wasted, it will be the old, worn-out 
suit, and the new ones will be taken care of. 
They should each be furnished with a trunk 
or box to keep their clothes in, with a lock 
and key to lock them up, and a paper of 
large needles and plenty of thread, and a 
thimble, in order to be able to mend their 
clothes when they are torn. They should 
also, each grown negro, be furnished with a 
good mattress, made of cotton and shucks, or 
wool or dried moss; and should always have 
on hand three good blankets for each grown 
negro, and two good blankets for each child, 
in order to keep them comfortable and warm 
in the winter. A family of a man and his 
wife and six children ought to have at least 
three mattresses and eighteen blankets; they 
may not have to use them all at once regu- 
larly, but there are a few excessive cold nights 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 141 

sometimes in the course of the winter, when 
«ill would be needed for the comfort of the 
family. Each family should be furnished 
with an ax and weeding-hoe, a wash-tub, 
water-pail, oven-skillet, frying-pan, sifter, and 
wash-pot, to be kept continually at their 
houses, for the use of the family, so that 
they would not have to borrow from each 
other; and the woman ought to have one- 
half of every Saturday, to wash their clothes, 
and be made to wash them. Some men will 
not furnish their slaves with such comforts^ 
and, therefore, they have a great many to die 
for the want of them. Suppose, for instance, 
a slave returns from his work at nine o'clock 
at night, in the winter, in cotton-picking time, 
which is frequently the case, and has no ax 
to chop his wood, and, perhaps, has to bring 
his wood on his shoulder for a mile or more, 
as is the case on some of the large plantations, 
where there are a great number of slaves, and 
then has to cook his supper and his food for 
the next day; as he has no ax to chop his 
wood, or has to borrow one from some of the 
rest after they have gotten through, how is 
it possible for that slave to make him a good 
13 



142 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

fire and do his cooking properly? He cannot 
do it at all; therefore, he gathers such sticks 
as he can find, makes a poor fire, about half 
cooks his provisions, and, from fatigue and 
exhaustion, falls down on the floor and goes 
to sleep; should the weather be cold and 
he wet, he has not fire enough to dry him- 
self; he lays down in his wet clothes, the fire 
goes out, he has no more wood to renew it, 
takes cold and dies, when his life might have 
been saved merely by having a few of the 
comforts of life about him, which would not 
have cost ^ the owner twenty dollars all to- 
gether. But negroes will be wasteful, and 
when these things are furnished, will fre- 
quently trade them off to other negroes, or 
throw them away. This evil must be reme- 
died by inspecting their houses frequently, 
and seeing that they have them and keep 
them in order. It is sometimes the case, that 
negroes will have every comfort they need 
one winter, and the next winter they will 
have nothing at all, having permitted their 
goods to be thrown about and wasted during 
the summer; and when the ensuing winter 
comes on, they are entirely destitute, and 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 143 

unless their owners will see to it and furnish 
them again, they will risk* the terrors of the 
winter in destitution, rather than complain 
to their owners, for fear of being w^hipped for 
their carelessness. Thus it is, that not un- 
frequently a woman who has four or five 
likely children, throws her bed-clothes away 
in the summer, lets them lay out and rot, and 
when the winter comes on, the owner, not 
having inquired into the matter, believing 
she has taken the proper care of her bedding, 
supposes she is well furnished, when one by 
one the children take cold, catch the croup, 
and die; while the owner spends five times 
as much in doctor's bills for them during the' 
time than would purchase them a new sup- 
ply, and loses his negroes besides. Therefore, 
on the first day of October, in every year, and 
January and July, at three times during the 
year, the owner should go to every negro- 
house and inspect everything they have, and 
enter it in a book, and see wdiat each one 
needs; and if they should waste their goods, 
or throw them away, give them a flogging for 
their carelessness, and be sure and furnish 
them with more. Some men will get angry 



144 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

with their slaves if they waste their goods, 
and will not furnish them any more in con- 
sequence of it; and will say to them, As you 
have wasted your clothes, or thrown away 
your blankets, or your ax, you may now go 
without; I will buy you no more to throw 
away. This is very bad economy, and such a 
course frequently costs the owner the value of 
the slave by his death, for the want of them. 
The course to be pursued is for the owner to 
give them a light whipping for their negli- 
gence, and charge them particularly to be more 
careful in the future, and then give them an- 
other supply immediately. In this way, the 
owners will attach their slaves to them, will 
make them healthy, cheerful, and prosperous, 
and add greatly to the wealth and interest of 
the slaveholder. 

Again, it frequently happens that slaves 
return from their work at night wet, and it 
is raining, when it is very difficult, if they 
have the means, for them to procure wood to 
make their fires; and if they have to hunt 
about in the dark for it, they are almost sure 
to go without, or be so very badly supplied 
that they materially suffer for want of it. 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 145 

Therefore, to remedy this evil, the shn^ves 
should be particularly charged and required 
to keep continually on hand, under their 
houses, or under their beds in some dry place, 
wood enough to make at least two good fires; 
and when an occasion of that kind arrived, 
they could use their dry wood, and be enabled 
to have good fires, without going out in the 
rain after dark to hunt it; and then the next 
day they could replace it. This is very im- 
portant to be observed, and the owner or 
overseer ought to see to it continually, and 
make them keep a supply on hand for bad 
weather. 

Again, there are generally two or three spells 
of excessive cold weather during the winter 
season in the South, which lasts for a week or 
ten days at a time, when the ground becomes 
frozen. At such times as this, slaves ought 
not to be forced out to work before sunrise 
in the morning ; and then they ought to be 
permitted to return to their houses by, or be- 
fore the sun goes down, so as to have ample 
time to provide a plenty of wood and ^k 
comfortable before it is dark ; and the women, 
during such cold days, ought to remain at the 
13* 



146 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

house with their children, in order to take care 
of them even if they do nothing except to 
take care of their children during such cold 
spells, as they will be worth more at such 
times in taking care of their children than 
their work would possibly be in the field; 
and their children ought all to be furnished 
with good, woolen clothes in the winter, to 
protect them from the cold, and prevent them 
from catching on fire, for in the winter time 
children will hover near the fire, and if they 
are clothed in cotton, they are apt to take 
fire, wdien wool will not burn; and besides, it 
is much more comfortable and will last longer 
than cotton, and costs but very little more. 
Slaveholders who will pursue this course, will 
find that they will be richly rewarded in the 
health and increase of their slaves; and that 
the little additional expense they are at in 
procuring and preparing comforts for their 
slaves is money well invested, and will pay 
better than the same amount invested in any- 
thing else. 

In the course of the last twenty-five years 
I have had the management of from ten to 
one hundred slaves at a time, and during the 



'OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 14T 

whole time liave only lost one slave wlio was 
large enough to work, and she was an old 
woman who died with old age, whose de- 
scendants numbered over a hundred at the 
time of her death, and only four slave chil- 
dren during the whole twenty-five years. 
The consequence has been, that the increase 
of my slaves have added much more to the 
value of my property than the amount of 
their labor. 

I had a neighbor, a few years ago, who 
owned fifty slaves. He was one of the most 
prudent, economical men I ever was acquaint- 
ed with : he lived almost entirely within him- 
self With but very little expense he made 
his own cooper's ware, done his own black- 
smith's work, tanned his leather and made his 
own shoes, clothed his family, white and black, 
with cloth of his own manufacture, and was 
at no expense, except the purchase of his 
iron, sugar, and coffee. The consequence 
was, that he was enabled to save more 
money than ordinary men, which he invest- 
ed entirely in the purchase of slaves; but at 
the same time he devoted a great deal of at- 
tention to his slaves, and saw that they were 



148 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

properly cared for and fed, and well clothed, 
with good, comfortable dwellings. The con- 
sequence was, that in the course of sixteen 
years he had purchased fifty slaves with the 
money he had saved, and had raised one hun- 
dred and fifty, having raised just three times 
as many as he had purchased, and those 
which he had raised were the most valuable; 
and all the while made larger crops to his 
force than any other planter in the neighbor- 
hood, all by treating his slaves well and hav- 
ing them properly attended to; and I do not 
suppose that, during the whole time, a single 
slave under his charge was ever so badly 
whipped as to make a scar. 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 149 



CHAPTER XL 

Mode of Feeding Slaves. 

We will next in order consider the proper 
mode of feeding slaves, in order to make them 
profitable, which, like clothing, is a very im- 
portant item in the management of slaves — 
one of far more importance than manj^ per- 
sons are aware of who are not physiologists. 
A certain quantity of nutriment is essentially 
important, both for the vegetable and animal 
kingdom ; and when deprived of the neces- 
sary quantity or quality, either the animal or 
vegetable will wither, dwindle away, and be- 
come feeble and weak, and, of course, less fit 
for use. Although it may receive enough to 
sustain life, it is more susceptible to destruc- 
tion, and less able to withstand hardships and 
of performing the service for which it was de- 
signed, than it would be when amply supplied; 
for instance, a horse may be fattened on green 



150 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

food, but when put to service, he will soon tire 
and give way; wdiile one that is fattened on 
good dry food w^ill do double the quantity of 
service of the other which is fattened on tlie 
green food, and will not tire or give out. Any 
person who has been used to the management 
of horses knows this to be true by observation, 
and it is more or less so wdtli all animals ; 
their flesh will partake, more or less, of the 
nature, in point of durability, of the food 
which they eat, and when put to hard labor 
their appetite will crave that kind and quan- 
tity of food best calculated to enable them to 
proceed in their labor. You may take an 
able-bodied man and put him behind the 
counter to sell goods, where the labor is light 
and no excessive exertion is required, and 
his stomach would reject fat bacon or pork ; 
he would not, perhaps, eat more than a pound 
of meat in a week, and his appetite would be 
satisfied with light food and weak diet, and 
he w^ould be able to progress with his business. 
But take the same man and put him to mail- 
ing rails, rolling of logs, chopping down trees, 
and doing such heavy, rough work, and he 
would eat a pound of fat bacon every day, 



OF AFEICAN SLAVERY. 151 

and other strong food with it, and relish it 
more than he would any dainty, because it is 
absolutely necessary for him, in order to 
strengthen him and enable him to perform 
his work. The consec|uence is, that slaves 
which are well fed with good wholesome food 
will do double the work with more ease than 
they would do scantily fed ; and it is, there- 
fore, good economy and a money-saving busi- 
ness to feed your slaves well, and give them 
plenty to eat, if meat has to be purchased 
even at high prices for the purpose. 

As to the mode of giving slaves their food, 
there are many methods used. Some give it 
to them every week, once a week, a week's 
allowance at a time, and let them cook it 
themselves. Some give it to them twice a 
w^eek in the same way ; and others have it 
cooked for them. I think, however, the best 
plan is to have some of it cooked for them, 
and let them also cook a little for themselves; 
for when slaves have to work all day in the 
summer season, and return home at dark 
when the nights are short, and have to make 
their own fires and do their own cooking, they 
frequently eat it raw, or go without. It is, 



152 A UISTORY AND DEFENSE 

therefore, best to have their cookhig done for 
them on hirge farms. Let every negro have 
a bucket Large enough to hold his day's pro- 
vision, with liis number on it, which num- 
ber should be plainly and distinctly marked; 
have the provision cooked neat and clean, 
and each negro's day's allowance put in the 
buckets, so that when they return at night 
they have nothing to do but call at the cook- 
house and receive their cooked provisions in 
their buckets, and eat their supper and go to 
bed, so that they can have a good night's rest 
and be ready for work in the morning. On 
Saturday nights, provisions should be fur- 
nivshed them to do them for two days, until 
Monday night, and let them cook it them- 
selves as they may choose. 

The quantity of bacon necessary for a com- 
mon field-hand is about four and a half 
pounds a week, w^ith vegetables and a quart 
of meal per day, or a pound of Hour per day. 
As bread, every farmer ought to raise as many 
sweet potatoes as his family could consume ; 
they are an excellent food for slaves, and when 
fed with abundantly, will save other provi- 
sions, and negroes are very fond of them. 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 153 

They are easily raised, and to the quantity 
necessary for a man's family, they pay better 
than any other crop. Corn-field peas also are 
a fine vegetable for negroes, — turnips, collards, 
and Irish potatoes. Every farmer ought to 
raise abundance of such vegetables for the use 
of his slaves ; for if he has a plenty of pota- 
toes and peas or beans for his negroes, they 
will not require so much meat, and the slaves 
are very fond of such diet, and such vegeta- 
bles are very easily raised on any kind of soil 
in the slaveholding region. Irish potatoes 
and pumpkins are also valuable as a vegeta- 
ble for slaves, and may be raised in great 
abundance, with but little expense. 

The women who have children should each 
of them have an extra bucket, in which a 
sufficient quantity of food should be placed 
for their children at night and morning, and 
during the day there should be a trusty old 
woman to take care of them and feed them; 
but it will not do to trust any negro to 
take care of another's children entirely, for 
they, in such cases, are sure to neglect 
them, and let them die for want of atten- 
tion, or suffer greatly; for they generally 
14 



154 A HISTORY AXD DEFENSE 

will not take good care of tlieir own children 
unless their owners see to it, and make them 
do it, and the}^ are certain not to take as good 
care of each other's as they would of their 
own. Therefore, slaveholders ought never to 
separate small children from their mothers, 
and place them entirely in the care of others 
for weeks at a time ; if they do, the loss of a 
majority of their little negroes will he the 
fatal consequence. 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 155 



CHAPTER XII. 

Women and Children — How to Treat Them. 

It is the custom on some of the large plan- 
tations on the Mississippi River and elsewhere 
for the owner of slaves during the sickly sea- 
son to take the children to some place on the 
high lands for the purpose of their being more 
healthy, and placing them under the care of 
some old negress to feed, manage, and take care 
of during the summer, supposing that in this 
way the children would be less apt to die, and 
would be better taken care of. But this is 
altogether a mistake; for wherever the ex- 
periment has been tried, it has proved fatal in 
ninety-nine cases out of a hundred. The lit- 
tle negroes have frequently, in such cases, 
died for the want of the proper attention, 
when it was supposed by the owner they died 
from common sickness. 

Notwithstanding the negro race is far in- 
ferior, in point of natural affection, to the 



15G A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

whites, thej, nevertheless, possess a strong 
attachment for their own children, and are 
endued with that parental care for their own 
brood which is common to all animals, with- 
out which the world would soon be depopu- 
lated — an instinct which has been so wisely 
bestowed upon all living animals by the great 
Creator and Preserver of the universe, in or- 
der that they should take care of their young, 
and provide for them until they were enabled 
to shift for themselves. And although they 
would neglect the child of one of their best 
friends, and suffer it to die with starvation 
when under their immediate care for the 
want of a little attention, being prompted by 
the impulses of natural affection, they would 
place themselves to a great deal of trouble to 
attend to their own children and administer 
to their wants. Therefore, I would say to 
those persons who own women and children, 
not to separate them w^lien the child is under 
ten years old, under any pretense w^hatever; 
if the mother has to stuy in the swamp and 
work, let the children stay with her. Give 
them a plenty to eat, and they will be far 
better attended to by their mother, and less 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 157 

liable to die, than wlien under the care of any 
other, although the climate may be unhealthy. 
It is not half so unhealthy as the care of a 
stranger who cares nothing for them; and 
they will be sure to fare better when their 
mother can see them once every day. And 
if the woman has a husband on the planta- 
tion, let them all stay on the same farm 
together : he can greatly aid in attending to 
the children at night. 

I knew a gentleman who owned two plan- 
tations : one was on the Mississippi Kiver, 
near Natchez; the other out in the hills, 
about fifteen miles from the river; and, in 
order that his young negroes should be more 
healthy, he took them from the river farm, 
and placed them under the care of a trusty 
old negress, out at his plantation on the high 
lands. The consequence was, that a great 
many of the children died ; the old woman 
attributed it to nothing more than common 
sickness, which human nature is subject to, 
and averred, in the most positive terms, that 
she had attended strictly to them. The gen- 
tleman pursued this plan for two summers, 
and the fatality v/as the same among his 
14* 



158 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

young negroes in both summers. At length 
he concluded that it certainly could be no 
worse on the river, and he would let their 
mothers have charge of them in the swamp. 
The consequence was, that his little negroes 
became more healthy, and he very seldom 
ever lost one. He was then convinced that 
it was bad policy to separate negro children 
from their mothers, in order to have them 
taken care of. 

The experiments have been tried by many 
others, and the result was invariably the 
same, as far as my knowledge extends. I 
would, therefore, recommend to all slave- 
holders to keep their negro children with 
their mothers, and not to permit them to be 
separated ; to attend to them in person, and 
see that everything was furnished necessary 
for their comfort and support, and to give the 
women who have children time to nurse and 
to attend to them. And those who have ne- 
groes in their charge to hire out for the bene- 
fit of orj)han children, would always do better 
to hire famiUes in one lot together — a man, 
his wife, and all the children under ten years 
of age — so, if one should get sick, the others 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 159 

who are nearly related will attend to them. 
I have known a great many negroes hired out 
to the highest bidder, and those that were 
hired in families always done better and pros- 
pered more than those who were hired from 
their families. I have known several in- 
stances of children being hired from their 
mothers, where the child contracted cold, for 
the want of their mothers to attend to them, 
in very cold weather, and died. Children 
will not take the necessary care of their bed- 
ding and clothes, so as to have them in order 
for use in cold weather, and it is useless to 
expect it; and, when hired out by themselves, 
will frequently lay down and go to sleep with- 
out any bedding at all in very cold weather, 
and therefore freeze, for the want of a friend 
to hunt up their blanket, and throw it over 
them. 

One of the greatest pieces of economy of 
the slaveholder is, to see that his negro women 
and children are properly attended to. They 
are more hardy, generally, than the whites, 
and, when properly attended to, vriil increase 
much faster; and the same care and attention 
devoted to the comfort of the women and chil- 



160 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

dren among negroes, will enrich the owner 
faster in that way than any other. 

The ovrner of slaves should never permit 
his women, while pregnant, to be flogged; 
there would be danger from the excitement 
occasioned by the whijoping, not only of de- 
stroying the child, but the mother also. 
AYomen are much more apt to die from a 
miscarriage than a natural birth; and a very 
slight whipping in such cases might produce 
a miscarriage, and cause death in both the 
mother and child. 

And again, there are a few cruel men, who 
are in the habit of using a paddle on their 
w^omen, or pennitting it to be done by their 
overseers. This practice is not only indecent 
in the highest degree, and to be condemned 
as brutal and inhuman, but it is ruinous and 
destructive to the vv'omen; it is almost sure 
to produce a miscarriage, if the woman is in 
a pregnant state, and not unfrequently causes 
the womb of the woman to fall and destroy 
her general health as long as Aia lives; and I 
would say to all slaveholders, strictly to en 
join it on your overseers not to use a paddle 
on any of the women under any pretext 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 161 

whatever, and never to whip them on the 
bare backs, so as to cut the skin ; they can be 
just as easily managed to whip them over the 
shoulders, with their clothes on, as to whip 
them on the naked back. They should never 
be cruelly whipped or abused; thirty-nine 
lashes with a small switch is enough to give 
them for any moderate offense, and will fre- 
quently answer a better purpose than a more 
severe whipping. There are other modes of 
punishment which frequently ansv/er a much 
better purpose than whipping, and are much 
less liable to injure the slave; for instance, to 
lock them up in the jail for a day or two in 
solitary confinement. This will frequently 
do more good than whipping; and every large 
farmer ought to have a jail of some sort on 
his plantation ; it is much better than a cow- 
hide to prevent slaves from running about 
after dark. 

The main object in all punishment is to 
cow the spirit and produce a reformation in 
the offender, and that mode is always the 
best which will produce the desired effect 
with the least physical injury; and when the 
slave is cowed, every lick he gets afterwards 



162 A HISTORY AND DHFENSE 

only tends to lessen his value, and makes him 
less able to render service to his owner. If 
one lick will cow the slave, stop right there, 
he needs no more; the person who whips, if 
he is any judge at all of the disposition of 
negroes, can tell in a moment when the negro 
is cowed — he will begin to beg and plead for 
mercy; until he is cowed, he w^ill remain stub- 
born and sullen. Negroes ought not to be 
beaten w^ith sticks or large hickories; such 
only deaden the flesh and disable the negro; 
a small, keen switch or whip will hurt worse 
for the moment and do less injurj^, and pro- 
duce the desired effect much quicker, than a 
large one. 

Again, negro women ought not to be forced 
to w^ork out in rainy, wet weather, for this 
reason at least, once each month they have 
their monthly courses on them, and if they 
should get their feet wet at such times, it 
causes a sudden stoppage of the menstrual 
discharges, and produces severe sickness, at- 
tended frequently with violent pain in the 
head and parts of the body; and it is fre- 
quently the case, that the general health of 
the woman is destroyed through life, by being 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. . 1G3 

exposed to bad, wet weather at such times; 
and it is much better for the owner to lose a 
few days of the labor of their women at such 
times during the year, than to have the risk 
of destroying the general health of the slave 
during life by exposure. 



16-i A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 



CHAPTER XIII. 

The Mode of arranging Out-houses on a Plantation — Jail, pjall- 
room, Church, Hospitals, with the Mode of Treating the Sick, 
and evil Consequence of the Use of Spirituous Liquors. 

As to the quantity of oiit-liouses on eacli 
plantation, much will depend on the size of 
the family and quantity of negroes on the 
farm; but, in all cases, every farm ought to 
have a sufficient quantity of out-buildings to 
answer every purpose with convenience, so 
as not to be too much crowded, in order that 
everything may have its proper place, so as 
to be arranged in order; for the better every- 
thing is arranged, and the most perfect order 
kept, the greater quantity of labor can be 
performed with the least trouble and expense. 
Thus:— 

Order is slavery's first law — and this confessed, 
Some are and must be greater than the rest. 

So, there should be a house for every pur- 
pose needed on every farm. 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 165 

And on every plantation where there are 
as many as forty slaves, there ought to be a 
plantation-jail of some sort for the purpose of 
locking up and keeping confined such slaves 
as cannot be kept from running about in the 
neighborhood after night, and for the purpose 
of confining unruly negroes for awhile, instead 
of corporal punishment. It will sometimes 
have a better effect to lock a negro up in jail 
and keep him confined all day on Sunday, 
than to give him a hundred stripes; and in- 
asmuch as the very object of punishing slaves 
is to make them behave themselves, that kind 
of punishment which will effect a reformation 
with the least injury to the slave, is the most 
preferable. 

I once owned a negro w^oman, who was in 
the habit of being insolent and impudent to 
her mistress. I tried flogging, but it done but 
little good; at length, I confined her a day or 
two in prison, without any other punishment, 
and it had the desired effect; she dreaded the 
prison worse than the lash. 

Again, when negroes are in the habit of 
strolling about in the neighborhood after 
night, they may be whipped for it, and still 
15 



166 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

they will continue their practice; they will 
wait until their owners or overseers go to 
bed, and will then start out visiting, some- 
times after midnight, and walk five or six 
miles to see their neighbors, and return home 
again before daybreak in the morning; the 
consequence is, that the slave is wholly un- 
qualified for service that day, and is frequent- 
ly made sick by such exposure and loss of 
sleep; and sometimes has a protracted spell 
of sickness in consequence of such exposure, 
all of which may be remedied by confining 
him a few nights in prison; put him in after 
supper, and let him out at daylight in the 
morning, until he reforms. If there is a 
negro on the place guilty of running about 
after dark in the neighborhood, without his 
owner's or overseer's consent, he can be very 
easily found out, and by punishing him a few 
nights in prison, he will soon quit it and be- 
have himself; and the very presence of the 
jail will sometimes have its efiect without 
using it, for negroes would much prefer to be 
flogged to solitary confinement. 

Again, women, when in a state of preg- 
nancy, ought never to be whipped, for causes 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 167 

before mentioned. Flogging at such times 
might destroy both mother and child; and 
when they require correction for misconduct, 
it is far better to lock them up in jail for a 
few hours than to whip them; but always be 
certain, if the weather is cold, to see that 
they have a plenty of blankets to keep them 
warm on such occasions, otherwise they might 
freeze or contract severe cold. It will not cost 
much to erect a private jail on a farm, as al- 
most any kind of a building will answer for 
the purpose, as those on the outside will 
never try to break him out; a little log build- 
ing, ten feet square, will be sufficient, with a 
common stock lock; two hands can build one 
in three days complete. 

And there should also be a house con- 
structed for a ball-room, on every farm where 
there are as many as forty slaves, for the 
amusement of those who wish to dance ; that 
they may have an opportunity of indulging in 
this kind of pleasure at home, instead of hav- 
ing to seek for it elsewhere. All nations of 
people, both civilized and savage, appear to be 
fond of dancing ; and the nearer they ap- 
proach to a savage state, the more they are 



163 A niSTORY AXD DEFENSE 

deliglited with such exercises ; and until I 
am convinced to the contrary, I shall be of 
the opinion that it is an advantage, both to 
the slaves and the slaveholder, for them to be 
permitted occasionally to have a ball or dance 
on the plantation with such as prefer it. 

The mind of man is so constructed that it 
must be employed at something : it will not 
remain idle ; and when not engaged in some- 
thing innocent, it will invariably be engaged 
in something- vile and mischievous; hence the 
Eoman emperors encouraged public plays and 
exhibitions for the amusement of the popu- 
lace, and the Olympic games were instituted 
and kept up at great expense and trouble for 
the amusement of the people ; and many wise 
rulers have encouraged sports and amuse- 
ments among their people for the purpose of 
amusing their minds, and giving them some- 
thing new to feast upon. All men are fond 
of a change occasionally; and after being 
confined to close business for several months 
together, the mind naturally seeks for some- 
thing to amuse it, and if these amusements 
cannot be had near home, it will seek them 
abroad. And if the slaves on a farm can 



OF AFEICAN SLAVEEY. 169 

have a little dance on the Fourth of July and 
on Christmas, with something a little extra to 
eat at such times, they will think and talk 
ahout it for months before it takes place, and 
will have their minds on the frolic Avhich they 
expect to have, with many pleasing anticipa- 
tions, instead of insurrection and vile mis- 
chief; and after the frolic is over, they wdll 
have something to talk and laugh about — 
some of their awkwardness in the frolic — for 
months. 

The owner or overseer ought in such case 
to be always present, in order to prevent dis- 
turbances, and ought never to permit spiritu- 
ous liquors to be used on such occasions, un- 
der any pretext whatever, and on no other 
occasion among negroes, for they are the worst 
kind of savages when drunk, and it is very 
seldom the case, when negroes get spirituous 
liquors, in a crowd or assemblage, but that 
some of them are killed. Owners of slaves 
should always see to that, and never permit 
their slaves to indulge in the use of intoxica- 
ting spirits. I have known very serious in- 
juries committed by negroes when they were 
intoxicated, and therefore they ought never 
15* 



170 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

to be permitted to use intoxicating liquors as 
a beverage ; it produces temporary mental de- 
rangement witli all classes, white men as well 
as negroes, and it is to be deplored that any 
rational being should use it as a beverage ; 
it blights a man's prospects, destroys his con- 
stitution, depraves his appetite, distresses his 
friends, impoverishes his family, degrades his 
character, sinks him in his OAvn estimation 
and that of others, casts a vail over his merit, 
if he lias any, and is the forerunner of vice, 
and mother of wretchedness and degradation 
in all its forms. I have been a practicing 
lawyer for over twenty-five years, and of the 
great multitude of cases which I have wit- 
nessed the trial of for crimes, in the courts of 
the country, it is strange to tell, that nine- 
teen out of twenty of the crimes conmiitted 
had their origin, either directly or indirect- 
ly, from the use of intoxicating, spirituous 
liquors, and could be traced to that source. 

Next in order, on every large farm there 
ought to be a cliurch, or place of Avorship, 
where the owner or overseer could occasion- 
ally assemble the slaves for the purpose of 
hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ preached 



OF AFRICAN SLAVEKY. 171 

to them. This is an imperative duty on the 
slaveholder, where his farm is so situated that 
his slaves cannot conveniently leave home 
to attend church, for him to employ some 
preacher to visit his farm occasionally, and 
preach to his slaves, that they may have the 
benefit of hearing the gospel preached. Those 
who embrace religion will always make good, 
obedient servants, as it is one of the in- 
junctions of the Holy Bible, that servants 
should be obedient to their masters ; and un- 
less the owner of slaves on large plantations 
should employ a preacher to visit his farm 
and preach to his slaves, many of them may 
live to a good old age, and die without know- 
ing anything about the gospel of Jesus Christ 
here in this enlightened Christian land of 
ours. If a preacher could be employed to 
preach to them once a month, or once in two 
months, it might be sufficient. It would 
hardly be supposed, that any slaveholder 
vv^ould refuse to let his slaves go to church in 
the neighborhood on Sunday, if there was 
preaching handy or near at hand 5 but in 
many cases farms are so inconveniently situ- 
ated that there is no church near enoudi for 



172 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

the masses of tlie slaves to attend; in such 
case it is nothing more than justice to the 
shive for the owner to procure a preacher to 
visit the farm occasionally — but always have 
a white man to preach to them. Experience 
has taught us, that it will not do to suffer 
negroes to preach. In the first place, their 
want of Bible knowledge disqualifies them; 
in the second, they are ignorant and super- 
stitious, and are very apt to preach some of 
their own superstitious notions as the true 
doctrine of the Bible, and produce wrong im- 
pressions; and in the next place, they are 
easily flattered, and very soon begin to feel 
very consequential; and as soon as they 
begin to be regarded with a degree of reveren- 
tial awe, as they soon would be by the igno- 
rant negroes, they would begin to regard 
themselves as possessing very great inspi- 
ration, and not unfrequently stir up the ne- 
groes, over whom they can exercise an influ- 
ence, to disaflc'ction and insurrection. 

Preaching, properly administered, is at- 
tended Avith much good, both to the slave and 
master; but, when improperly used, may re- 
sult in great injury. We may as well say 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 173 

that a man ought not take medicme from a 
skillful physician, when he is dangerously 
sick, because there are quacks who know 
nothing about medicine practicing the profes- 
sion, who do their patients an injury and 
sometimes kill them, as to say a slaveholder 
ought not to have his slaves preached to by a 
pious, good, white preacher, because an igno- 
rant negro preacher would do them an injury. 
Negroes are possessed of an immortal soul, 
and, therefore, their owners should see that 
they are not deprived of the benefit of the 
gospel of Christ, the Lord and Saviour of us 
all. 

THE HOSPITAL. 

Next in order of buildings on the farm is 
the hospital. On every farm, where there 
are as many as twenty slaves, there should be 
a building erected, according to the number 
in the family, of sufficient dimensions, and 
with a sufficient number of rooms, as a hos- 
pital, where the sick can be properly nursed 
and attended to by good, careful nurses, and 
supplied with such comforts as they need dur- 
ing their sickness ; and, therefore, a building 



174 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

of tliis description is one of the most valua- 
ble and important on every plantation, and 
no large slaveholder should ever be without 
one. Those who never have had one — and 
there are many such — if they should ever try 
it, will never after be without one, and will be 
surprised that they had ever done without it. 
By the use of the hospital, negroes can be 
much easier and better attended to when sick, 
at a much less expense. The sick will there 
recover much more readily, and be less apt to 
die, or to impart their sickness to others, or 
suffer inconvenience by being with others not 
their nurses, or cause others to suffer incon- 
venience from them : and while they will be 
less apt to die in the hospital than in their 
houses, their recovery will be much more 
speedy and certain. 

This building should be built with a great 
deal of care, and particular attention should 
be paid to its construction, so as to have it to 
contain a sufficient quantitj^ of rooms, so that 
each sick negro, if possible, might have a 
comfortable room to himself; and the rooms 
should be so constructed as to be made 
very comfortable, either in the winter or sum- 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 175 

mer, with a brick chimney to each roonij for 
fire in the winter, and good, airy, glass win- 
dows for a free admission of the air in the 
summer. It ought to be situated on the pLan- 
tation not for from the negro houses, in some 
cool, shady place, where there are a plenty of 
good, green shade-trees in the summer, that 
the house may be made as cool and pleasant 
as possible in the summer. And there should 
be a separate room to the building as a cook- 
room, so that when their provisions Avere be- 
ing prepared, the room might not be made 
uncomfortable by the fire or scent of the pro- 
visions. Each room for the sick should be 
supplied wdth a good mattress and bedstead, 
with other necessary bedding to suit the sea- 
son, a water-bucket, and every other neces- 
sary convenience for sick persons, and all 
should be kept in neat and clean order. And 
wdien any of the slaves are sick, have them 
taken to the hospital, and supplied with a 
good nurse; and increase the number of 
nurses as the number of sick increases, so that 
every sick negro shall be well and properly 
attended to by their nurses. Their relations 
should be permitted to visit them at night, and 



176 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

to assist the nurses, if they choose ; for some- 
times the nurse will neglect the patient, and 
if their relations come in to see them, the sick 
negro will complain of the neglect; and the 
owner can see that they have the proper at- 
tention. Each hospital ought to have attached 
to it at least one good bathing-tub, in which 
the sick could be bathed all over, as it is 
highly important, in many cases of sickness, 
to bathe the patient; and a single bath may 
sometimes save the life of the slave, when 
properly administered. Good nursing fre- 
quently adds more to the recovery of the pa- 
tient than medicine ; and in every instance 
good nursing aids the medicine very materi- 
ally in the cure of the patient. 

When a sick negro is taken to the hospital, 
suppose he has the fever in the summer sea- 
son, he is placed in a good, comfortable room, 
in a cool, shady place, has his nurse to wait 
upon him ; he takes medicine, perhaps is kept 
confined to his bed for a week, during which 
time he needs particular attention night and 
day, in order that he may recover; he is, per- 
haps, up three or four times during the night, 
from the operation of the medicine; he inter- 



OP AFRICAN SLAVERY. 177 

rupts 110 person at all but his nurse, who is 
placed there for the purpose, and has nothing 
else to do; after awhile, the sick negro gets 
easy, drops into a sweet sleep, there is no 
person stirring or rattling about to interfere 
with him, he gets through with his sleep, 
feels refreshed, and his recovery is rapid; he 
soon gets well and is able to resume his 
labors again, for the benefit of his owner. 

Suppose, again, that there is no hospital 
or sick-house on the farm, as is the case in 
thousands of instances where there ought to 
be one; the negro comes in, in the heat of 
summer, with the fever on him, his owner or 
overseer gives him a dose of medicine, and 
he retires to his cabin. Night comes on, some 
two or three other slaves of his family come 
in from work ; they have to kindle up a fire 
to get their suppers, the room becomes heated, 
the negro with the fever is already nearly 
dead with a hot fever, and instead of being 
in a cool, comfortable place where he will 
not be interrupted, he has to bear the addi- 
tional scorch of the heating of the room by fire 
for several hours at a time, until the rest are 
done cooking their supper, and then bear the 
16 



178 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

warmth that the fire produces afterwards, 
until it goes out, and not unfrequently dies 
by this additional aggravation of the disease, 
when otherwise he would recover without 
even the aid of medicine. After supper is 
over, the well negroes, who are now very 
much fatigued by their day's labor and the 
fatigue of standing over a hot fire, cooking, 
lay down, exhausted, to sleep; they rest 
awhile and are soon aroused from their 
slumbers by the groans of the sick ; his medi- 
cine makes him sick and commences its oper- 
ation; he groans and gets up to attend to the 
operation of his medicine; the negroes in the 
room are awakened from their sleep to attend 
to him; he lays down again, and in the course 
of an hour or two he rises and interrupts the 
well negroes again and again in the same way 
until daylight in the morning, when those 
who are well, now only lialf rested by the 
disturbance of the sick negro, have to repair 
to the field to resume their daily labor, 
wearied out from fatigue and the Avant of rest. 
During the day some of them are attacked 
by the fever in the same way; they return 
to the house, are given a dose of medicine in 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 179 

the same way, sent to tlieir cabin, and then 
there are two sick ones to annoy the balance 
of the inmates instead of one, and to be an- 
noyed in the same way; and all this time it 
does not occur to the owner or overseer the 
true cause which produces it. 

The negroes frequently die in this way, by 
improper treatment for the want of a sick- 
house, and their death is attributed, as a 
matter of course, to the common fatality of 
the sickness. Whole families are thus fre- 
quently made sick and are down at once by 
this kind of treatment and exposure, when 
if there had been a sick-house on the place, 
and the first one who was taken had been 
sent to it, there would have been no more 
sickness in that family during the summer; 
because, when the sick one was properly 
taken care of at the sick-house, the balance 
of the family, after getting their supper at 
night, could lay down and rest easy until 
daylight, get up, feel refreshed, and cheer- 
fully commence their work in the morning. 

Slaveholders frequently lose a great many 
slaves either for the want of attention or the 
necessary conveniences ; and where the slave 



180 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

is proper!}' attended, and furnished with the 
necessary conveniences when sick, it is very 
rarely the case tliat one ever dies, except 
from old age. And when they begin to re- 
cover from their sickness, they ought to be 
furnished with good, wholesome food, suitable 
for persons in such a condition, as at such 
times the stomach is weak and cannot bear 
such strong food as when in good health; and 
the slave ought not to be forced to go out to 
work too soon after a recovery, or be made 
to fatigue himself very much shortly after, for 
fear of a relapse; it is generally the best plan 
to let the slave remain at his house, after re- 
covering from a severe spell of sickness, until 
he gets ready to go out to work of his own 
accord. 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 181 



CHAPTER Xiy. 

How to Treat the Women. 

On all large farms there are frequently a 
large portion of the slaves women, and some 
one or more of them in a state of pregnancy 
all the while, and this class of slaves, if prop- 
erly taken care of, are the most profitable to 
their owners of any others, and if not prop- 
erly taken care of, are altogether valueless. 
It is remarkable the number of slaves which 
may be raised from one woman in the course 
of forty or fifty years with the proper kind 
of attention. I have frequently seen the 
mother, who was a pert, active, old woman 
under seventy years of age, who could boast 
of having over a hundred of her posterity 
living. 

But, when they are not properly taken care 
16* 



182 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

of, tlie children die for the want of attention, 
and the mother, by being frequently laid up 
in child-bearing, is valueless as to her labor 
on the farm. Negro women, when pregnant, 
ought never to be required to do any very 
hard, rough work, which would fatigue them, 
or to lift any heavy weight; neither should 
they be Avhipped or abused in any way, but 
should be treated with sympathy and kind- 
ness; and they should be permitted to remain 
wdth their children as much as possible, and 
to remain in the house, without going out to 
work for their owner, at least five or six 
weeks after the birth of their child; and 
when they have to work in the field, let 
them come to their child three or four times 
during the day to attend to it, otherwise the 
mfant might die for the want of attention; 
and very young children require a great deal 
of nursing, which should never be refused 
them. Where the owner of the slave appears 
to exercise a degree of care and attention for 
the negro children it will act as a stimulant 
to the mother, and cause her to attend better 
to her children; but where the owner does 
not seem to care anything about them, and 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 188 

will not give the mother time to attend to 
her children, she becomes cowed and dis- 
heartened, and will not pay the attention to 
them that she can, and will frequently be 
glad to see them die and out of the way. 



184 A HISTORY AXD DEFENSE 



CHAPTER XY. 

A Hint to Overseers. 

It is almost invariably the case on planta- 
tions where there are over a dozen slaves, the 
owner has to employ some white man as an 
overseer to stay on the plantation with the 
slaves, and direct them in their labor. And 
it is often the case on large farms, when the 
owner does not reside on his farm, the over- 
seer has the full charge and control of the 
negroes and farm, and manages everything 
according to his own will and pleasure. 
Therefore, it is very important that an over- 
seer should be a man under a good character, 
a thorouoh-o'oinir, industrious, business man, 
one possessing a high sense of honor and 
honesty as well as anything else; otherwise, 
instead of being a benefit to his employer, he 
is a serious injury. Overseeing negroes is 
like everything else; in order for a man to 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 185 

understand the business well, he must have 
experience and practice, otherwise he is 
wholly unfit to take the reins as a principal 
overseer on a farm; and in order for a man 
to understand the business, he ought to serve 
at least five years as a driver or under-over- 
seer, that he may be enabled, when he comes 
to manage as the principal overseer, to dis- 
charge his duty with honor to himself and 
profit to his employer, and by his manage- 
ment acquire a reputation. 

There are great difierences in overseers as 
well as anything else, and of all occupations 
in the world, a good overseer will pay the 
employer more than anything else; and the 
farmer who works twenty hands, who has a 
first-rate overseer, and pays him a thousand 
dollars per annum, gets his overseer cheaper 
than his neighbor who has the same number 
of hands and a mean overseer which cost him 
only Mty dollars a year; the good overseer, 
by his management, will make the farm 
which he is on clear all expenses, pay his 
wages, and net the owner from two to three 
thousand dollars besides; w^iile the mean 
overseer, by his bad management, will not 



186 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

pay expenses, and frequently, instead of the 
owner ot the farm makhig a neat profit, he 
falls behind, and his farm does not clear the 
expenses by two or three thousand dolhirs. 
And where farmers continue to employ 
such, they will soon get broke by their mean 
overseers; and the mean overseer will appar- 
ently work the negroes harder than the good 
one, and he is certain to whip a great deal 
more, for, having no management himself, he 
suffers everything to get in confusion, and 
then whips the negroes for what he himself 
is guilty of. 

A great many farmers are ruined by mean 
overseers; the overseer in such cases ruins 
himself as well as his employer, for when he 
is found out to be a mean overseer, no other 
person w^ants him, and he is frequently thrown 
out of employment. It is often the case that 
a man is not able to manage his own little 
affairs, with none to work but himself, and 
being too lazy to work, and unqualified for 
anything else, he starts out to hunt an over- 
seer's berth, and considers himself worthy of 
taking charge of a gentleman's farm with fifty 
or one hundred hands. Such men sometimes 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 18T 

succeed in getting employment, and are imme- 
diately lifted up in their own estimation, and 
will splutter about prodigiously for awhile, 
but as soon as they are left to themselves, 
will commence neglecting their business ; they 
care nothing about the interests of their em- 
ployer, so that their wages are going on ; they 
suffer the stock to scatter, the mules and 
horses to get poor, the whole farm to get out 
of order, and do not even dream that any 
person is noticing their management and con- 
duct, wdiile the whole neighborhood, white 
and black, are noticing every movement and 
talking about it. Eventually, the owner of 
the farm comes along ; his neighbors tell him 
huw badly his overseer is getting on, he goes 
to his farm and finds his overseer is worthless, 
and w^ill ruin him if he keeps him, and he 
immediately discharges him, and he now has 
no further prospects as an overseer; he goes 
around and tries to get in at some other 
place; he finds that where he is known that 
no person wants him at any price, and, to his 
utter surprise, he now finds that instead of 
not being noticed in his neglect and bad con- 
duct, that every man, woman, and child has 



188 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

been observing; his movements in the neiizh- 
borhood the whole while. 

A young man, in such cases, should always 
remember that when he undertakes to trans- 
act business for another, that he has a great 
deal of character at stake, and that if he is 
faithful and true, every person around sees it, 
and will give him credit for his fidelity, but 
if he is treacherous and trifling, it will also 
be noticed to his discredit; that when he is 
at work for his employer, he is at work for 
himself as much as for his employer, and 
where he does his best and proves faithful, 
a great many failings will be looked over for 
the want of proper information, and that he 
will improve by the proper kind of exertions 
and win upon the confidence of his employer, 
and instead of being discharged, he will be 
encouraged and his wages will be increased, 
and he will eventually improve and grow in 
the confidence of his employer and others 
who know him, until he will rank as a No. 
1 overseer, and can get wages anywhere, and 
be eagerly sought after; besides, he will have 
the consciou.^ness of knowing that he has 
done his duty and proved a blest^iug to his 
em]Dlo}ers. 



OF AFKICAN SLAVERY. 189 

It is the duty of the overseer to be con- 
tinually on the farm, seeing to the interest of 
his employer; to see to the hogs, the cattle, 
the horses, the negroes, and everything which 
requires his attention; to see that the horses 
and mules are properly fed and watered, that 
their gear does not gall them ; to see that they 
are kept fat and sleek, for it is a bad sign to 
see poor horses and mules on a farm Avhere 
there is a plenty to feed with; it shows too 
much neglect, or a great want of manage- 
ment. It is also a very bad sign to see the 
fences down and the gates off of the hinges, 
and the houses out of repair on a farm. I 
want no better evidence of bad management 
than this. I can tell whether a man has a 
good overseer or not, merely by riding by his 
farm and looking at his houses and fences; a 
neat manager will keep all in order without 
much noise or whipping. The negroes should 
always know at night what they are required 
to do in the morning, and the overseer should 
instruct them how to do their Vv^ork, and have 
a particular place to keep everything; every 
plowman should have his particular horse or 
mule to manage, and a particular stall for 
17 



190 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

them to stand in, and a particular place to 
keep their bridles and curry-combs, so that 
they could get up at any time of a dark night 
and find them all without a light. In this 
way, everything will move on in order and 
regularity; and the overseer should be very 
cautious, if he went to whip a negro for a 
slight offense, and the negro should run from 
him, not to shoot him, but wait until he can 
hem him and catch him, which would not 
take very long. A great many negroes will 
run from the master or overseer when they 
go to whip them, and it is very wrong to 
shoot them merely for running from you ; it 
will generally not take very long to catch 
them afterwards, when they can be sufficients 
ly punished without endangering their lives; 
and also be cautious and never inflict any 
cruel or unusual ill-treatment on any slave 
under your charge, for no humane owner of 
slaves will like to have his slaves ill-treated 
in any way, but will think the more of his 
overseer if he can manage the slaves without 
puni.^hment. 



OF AFRICAjq- SLAVERY. 191 



CHAPTER XYI. 

Duties of Masters and Slaveholders. 

Every slaveholder should reflect and con- 
sider their slaves not only as property, but 
also as human beings like themselves; that 
notwithstanding they differ in color and in 
strength of mind, and condition in life, that 
the slave is entitled to certain rights which it 
would be both cruel and unjust to deprive 
him of: the right of his life, his limbs, of rest 
on the Sabbath day, and the care and protec- 
tion of his master, with the privilege of wor- 
shiping God in that manner most agreeable 
to his feelings and the dictates of his con- 
science. These are privileges which do not 
interfere at all with the rights of the owner, 
but only tend to strengthen them, and to 
better qualify the slaves to render service to 
their owners. And as the slave receives no- 
thing in return for his labor except victuals 



192 A HISTORY AXD DEFENSE 

and clotlios, tlie owners should always see 
that their slaves are well fed and clothed. 
In this wav, the slave will be sure to be 
more cheerful, healthy, and thrifty, and far 
better qualified to render himself useful and 
profitable to his owner. Some slaveholders, 
from a mistaken idea of economy, do not fur- 
nish the necessary quantity of food or cloth- 
ing to their slaves, and seek to grow rich by 
stinting their slaves in this way; but such a 
course is the most extravagant after all, and 
is always attended with ruinous consequences. 
A slave may sometimes die for the want of a 
good suit of warm clothes and a good blanket 
in the winter, which would not cost the owner 
ten dollars to buy, and for the v»^ant of them 
a slave which is worth a thousand dollars dies 
from cold and exposure ; or for the want of 
proper food, may sicken and die in the same 
way. Thus, we see that men who grow rich 
fastest by the labor of their slaves, invariably 
feed and clothe them better than those whose 
slaves are of but little value. All who are in 
the habit of managing negro slaves, know that 
they do not regard work, and that they even 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 193 

delight in it when they are properly fed and 
clothed. 

The owner should also look after his over- 
seers or managers frequently, and see if they 
treat the negroes properly, and never suffer 
his slaves to be treated in any cruel or un- 
usual ill manner. Some overseers, particu- 
larly green ones, who know but little about 
managing slaves, and there are a great many 
of this kind who offer their services for such 
business, think that they must always be 
whipping and beating the slave, and, not 
having any judgment in such matters, some- 
times kill the slave, or disable him, so as to 
render him valueless. Such a course of con- 
duct is the best evidence of the want of 
qualification in an overseer; and I would say 
to slaveholders. If you have such a one, dis- 
charge him immediately ; he will do you more 
harm than good; for all good managers get 
on smoothly without much noise or whipping. 
There is a great deal in management, and the 
overseer who understands his duties best, can 
the more easily impart a knowledge of duty 
to others. If you find that your overseer is 
a treacherous scamp, that he has betrayed 
17* 



194 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

or deceived you willfully in any instance, dis- 
charge him — he will deceive and betray you 
again; trust him no further. But if, on the 
other hand, you find that he is faithful and 
true ; that he has a correct knowledge of his 
business; that everything moves on well un- 
der his management; and that he treats your 
slaves properly, and is devoted to your in- 
terest, retain him if possible — he is one in a 
thousand; and give him just as high wages as 
you can possibly afford, rather than part with 
him; for, be assured, it will puzzle you to 
get another to fill his place; and occasionally, 
though rare, we find one of this kind. 

The overseer will be certain in all cases to 
be more particular, and strive harder to 
please, when he sees his employer taking an 
interest in the farm, and looking into his 
management. The owner should occasionally 
inspect the negro-houses and their clothes 
and bedding, and see that they are well 
supplied, and everything kept neat; and in 
the winter season, particularly in very cold 
weather, have wood hauled in great abund- 
ance and placed near their houses, to enable 
them to keep good fires; they should also 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 195 

never suffer mothers to be separated from 
their children under ten years of age, but 
keep the mothers on the same farm where 
the children are, winter and summer; for the 
mothers will be certain to take better care of 
their children than any other person would, 
and in cold weather it is often necessary for 
mothers to rise in the night and cover up 
their children, in order to keep them from 
freezing; when they are willing to wait on 
their own children in this way, they would 
be unwilling to wait upon the children of 
others, and would let them lie and freeze 
rather than be troubled with them. 

Sometimes it is the case that guardians or 
administrators, in the South, have negroes to 
hire out, which belong to the estate of the 
intestate or their wards, among whom there 
are women and children; in such cases it is 
far better to hire all of the children under 
twelve years old with their mothers, and if 
the woman has a husband to be hired, it is 
better to hire the husband with his wife and 
children all together in one lot, with an ex- 
press condition that they are not to be 
separated or rehired without the written con- 



196 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

sent of the owner or guardian. Although 
in such cases they may hire for less money, 
they will certainly be better taken care of, 
and of more value at the end of the year, 
than they would be hired separate, and less 
liable to die when sick for the want of at- 
tention. 

The owners of slaves should always act 
toward the slave in such a manner as to 
insure his respect and reverence. Therefore, 
he ought never to use any undue familiarity 
with his slave ; for if he becomes too familiar 
with him, he will be certain to lose his re- 
spect. He should be kind and humane to his 
slave, and correct his faults in such a manner 
as not to be cruel. He should always be 
prompt with him, and be sure to perform all 
of his promises to him ; pay him everything 
he promises with a degree of punctuality, so 
as to induce his slave to think it impossible for 
his owuier to deceive him; and never show 
any vindictiveness whatever. Whenever you 
have to chastise him, do it in such a manner 
as to show him it is done to correct his faults 
and make him obe}^, as a parent would his 
child, and not from any feeling of vindictive 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 197 

vengeance ; and in this way joii will have 
the love and esteem of your slaves, make 
them fond of their home, and devoted to your 
interest. 

If at any time you should own a vindictive 
slave — and it is sometimes the case — and you 
think yourself in danger from him, or any 
number of them, always be prepared for a 
controversy, but never let them know that 
you are afraid of them ; but, on the contrary, 
always pretend as though you thought yourself 
perfectly safe, and they will not be half so apt 
to make an attack upon you. 

Negro slaves, as I have observed before, 
when properly treated and properlj^ governed, 
are as useful and necessary as any other class 
of human beings, and are the main root which 
extracts from the earth the principal suste- 
nance which goes to the support of all of the 
balance of the human race ; but, when badly 
governed, or left to themselves, of all others 
they are of the least value, and like all other 
savages the most dangerous. When let loose 
to a free exercise of their passions and feel- 
ings, their brutal barbarity knows no bounds, 
as has been illustrated on several occasions, 



198 A HISTORY AXD DEFENSE 

where an attempt was made at insurrection in 
several parts of the United States, and other 
places. Nothing short of total extermination 
ever satisfies their savage desires ; and awful 
have been the scenes where they have been 
successful in their insurrections. 

Therefore, the owners of negro slaves can- 
not be too cautious in pursuing that course, 
in the government of their slaves, which will 
keep down insurrection, and the best promote 
the happiness of the slave, the welfare, the 
interest, and the safety of the slaveholder. 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 199 



CHAPTER XYII. 

Free Negroes, and their Influence and Danger among Slaves. 

Negro slaves sliould, in all cases, be kept 
as far from any vile influence operating on 
their minds as possible. If possible, they 
should not be permitted to talk or even think 
of being free. It should always be made to 
appear to them that the black man and the 
mulatto were born to be slaves to the white 
people ; and, therefore, they should never be •* 
permitted to see a free negro or mulatto. Such 
a thing ought not to exist in a slave country 
where there are negro slaves; if it does, it is 
always attended with the most serious conse- 
quences. The very presence of one free ne- 
gro or free mulatto in the slaveholding part 
of the United States, will do more to breed 
insurrection among the slaves, and render 
them discontented with their condition, than 
one hundred abolition presses in the North, 
where there are no slaves. Although the free 
negro or mulatto may be a clever man^ and 



200 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 

not at all disposed to do wrong, the slaves Avill 
look on liim and compare their own condition 
w^ith that of the free negro, and desire to be 
free as well as he is — and thus his very pres- 
ence will breed disafiection. 

Yet we see, in some of our Southern slave- 
holding cities, free negroes and free mulattoes 
strutting about with impunity, smoking their 
cigars in the market-places, and wielding a 
gold-headed cane, with as much consequence 
as if they were the governors of the country; 
and all this is tolerated as a matter of little 
consequence, when a great noise and commo- 
tion is made about the abolitionists in Massa- 
chusetts and other non-slaveholding places, as 
being great bugbears and dangerous enemies 
to the slave and slaveholder. In this way, 
you pass b}^ the substance and strike at the 
shadow. If you wish to be safe — if you wish 
your negroes to be satisfied with their condi- 
tion — if you wish to put down every induce- 
ment to insurrection among the negroes — if 
}'ou wish, with your famiUes, your wives, your 
daughters, and your children, to be in safety 
by your own fireside, which it is your impera- 
tive duty to do, remove every free negro and 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 201 

free mulatto out of the bounds of the slave- 
holding region ; send them to Liberia or some 
of the free States, and never suffer a free ne- 
gro or free mulatto to enter the slaveholding 
region. If one is set free among you, send 
him immediately out of the country. If they 
settle among the abolitionists in the free 
States, they will soon get tired of them, and 
wish them back in the slave States, and soon 
shut their mouths about abolitionism. But 
by no means permit a free negro or mulatto to 
remain among you, neither permit any negro 
to hire his own time, and stroll through the 
country seeking employment, under severe 
penalties. This is the only way you can be 
secure, in the enjoyment of your negro prop- 
erty in the South; and, although in a few 
cases it may seem hard to compel the free 
negroes to emigrate and leave their old friends 
and acquaintances, yet it is far better for them 
to do so, and make some sacrifices, than that 
a whole community should suffer, and, in con- 
sequence of their presence, be in continual 
danger of having the country deluged in blood 
from an insurrection occasioned by the influ- 
ence of their remaining, 
18 



202 A HISTORY AND DEFENSE 



CHAPTER XYIII. 

The Conclusion, with Seven Maxims as Advice to Young Men. 

In conclusion, I feel that I have been won- 
derfully protected, in the many different 
scenes in life through which I have had to 
pass, by the Omnipotent hand of God, in 
whom I trust for present comfort and future 
happiness. At a very early age I had serious 
and religious impressions, and frequently, 
when I was but a child, retired in secret to 
implore the aid and forgiveness of Him who 
rules the universe — the great God, from whom 
all blessings flow; through whose mercy and 
goodness, by the mediation of Jesus Christ, 
my Saviour, I hope to inherit eternal life, to 
whom be all glory and honor and power for- 
ever; — for I feel that God has heard my 
prayers, and answered them on many and 
various occasions, and that I am the special 
object of his care and protection. Without 



OF AFRICAN SLAVERY. 203 

his assistance, I should be nothing ; and with 
his help, I am enabled to stand. 

Now, I have a few words to say to young 
men, in conclusion, which, if they will take 
heed to, will prove a jewel and a fortune: — 

1st. Shun intoxicating liquor as you would 
a poisonous viper ; for thousands have fallen 
victims to its use ; neither touch, taste, or 
handle the unclean thing. 

2d. Shun the card-table as you would a 
rattlesnake : it allures, charms, and then de- 
stroys its victim. Never risk at play that 
which will make your family comfortable. 

3d. Endeavor to keep out of bad company ; 
for men are judged by the company they 
keep. 

4th. Never put off until to-morrow any of 
your business that you can attend to to-day; 
for men often lose much by neglecting their 
business; for to-morrow has business enough 
for itself, without engrossing the business of 
to-day. 

5th. Never forsake an old, tried, and faith- 
ful friend for a new one. 



204 AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

6th. Don't forget to read the Bible as much 
as you can, because in it we read what is ne- 
cessary to make us happy here and hereafter. 
It is the best book in the world, and is the 
inestimable gift of God to man. 

7th. And above all, worship God and keep 
his commandments : this is not only our duty, 
but a very high privilege. 










